What does America mean, and what does it mean to be an American? These are complicated questions with a multitude of possible answers. We can’t open a newspaper or magazine, or turn on the television or radio or browse the Internet without exposing ourselves to …
The Poetry of Arab Women, edited by Nathalie Handal, came across my desk some months ago. I was impressed; it’s an extremely thorough collection, featuring a wide range of Arab women poets from around the world. I thought it was an good book, and figured …
The publication of Billy Collins’ new and selected poems comes only about a month after his appointment as Poet Laureate of the U.S. for 2001-2002 and a little more than a decade since the publication of The Apple That Astonished Paris, the first of four …
Loving Pedro Infante tells the story of Teresina Ávila, or Tere, a divorced thirtysomething teachers’ aide in Cabritoville, New Mexico. Tere has a mother who’s always there for her, a best friend she can tell anything to, a string of romantic failures, and mixed feelings …
The Other Side of Eden is a puzzle of a book, by turns engrossing and dull, insightful and preachy. In it, Hugh Brody examines hunter-gatherer cultures, individually and in general, and looks at how these societies coexist — and, more often, clash — with the …
I began Meri Robie’s first novel with some trepidation. The book began with an overpowering prose style to punch-up what seemed like a very standard plot. A young professional mother looks for a suitable place to raise her son. The young family looking for a …
I first encountered the novels of A.S. Byatt in a British Literature survey I took to fulfill a degree requirement in college. When the professor assigned Possession, Byatt’s 1990 Booker Prize winner, she did so with an apologia to the class for its bulk, but …
Reviewing a single novel by Murakami without discussing his other works is like trying to walk up a steep embankment of newly cut grass after a summer rain in bowling shoes. It’s difficult to keep from slipping. Plot details and character delineation from one tale …
Yesterday, as I was considering how to begin my review of The PowerBook, a friend spotted the book on my coffee table. “Jeanette Winterson!” she exclaimed. “She’s a great writer.” I agreed, and we got to talking, and we found that we had both been …
For the last month, I’ve been practicing the phrase, “I used to live in Boston,” but it still feels strange to say it. In two weeks, I’ll put all my stuff in a truck and head south to New York. I’m prepared, but after eight …