Although the story of Sally Miller is fascinating enough to be read purely for the forward thrust of the plot, what makes this book worth a serious look is the way Bailey teases out all of the implications, and allows…
A review of Asterix and the Class Act by Rene Goscinny
Originally created in 1959 and published in the French comics magazine Pilote, Asterix ultimately became a cult hero and French household name. The series is set in the year 50 B.C in the area which is today’s France, primarily Brittony.…
A review of The Body’s Question: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
Her poems are unpretentious, intelligent and consistently arresting by their beauty and their honesty. This is another triumph for Graywolf Press which seems unable to publish any but distinguished books. Reviewed by Bob Williams The Body’s Question by Tracy K.…
Interview with Wells Earl Draughon
The author of Advanced Writing talks about the making of his book, the limitations of other books for writers, his first book for writers, the importance of the reader, the underlying similarities between fiction and screen plays, the nature of the film world, the “NY Editor” and NYer in general (!), his views about literary fiction and value labels, his next book, and lots more.
A review of Advanced Writing by Wells Earl Draughon
Throughout Advanced Writing, author Wells Earl Draughon is careful to define his terms, and uses his close analysis of words normally used to designate the tools of fiction – things like dynamics, consummation scenes, character appeal, architecture, and setting as…
A review of Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee
Pointless is, unfortunately, the best adjective for this book. There is no coherence between any of the chapters, we have no feeling for any of Costello’s work, and none of the characters, including Costello, are developed. The potential theme, which…
A review of Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginedes
Middlesex the novel is presented as Cal’s third birth – his artistic creation of the “roller coaster ride of a single gene through time.” Cal’s voice is the heart of the story, which is told in a kind of first…
A review of At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft
by Bob Williams At Home with the Glynns by Eric Kraft Paperback: 179 pages Picador USA; Reprint edition (May 1996), ISBN: 031214279X Of the first eight books by Kraft, four of them (Little Follies, Where Do You Stop?, What a…
A review of Yellow Dog by Martin Amis
In the often farcical rollercoaster ride that the book follows, the reader encounters a kind of Quixote tilt at the Windmills of honesty, straining to work out what is real and what isn’t, who is really guilty, and if innocence…
A review of The Point by Marion Halligan
Told in short, simply constructed sentences, the narrative builds beguiling complexity and sophistication from deceptive sparseness, like one of Flora’s culinary creations. Reviewed by Hope Nesmith The Point By Marion Halligan Allen & Unwin 335 pp On a fictitious promontory…