Books
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Being the dull introvert that I am, I've never done a lot of celebrating on New Year's Eve, though I usually am awake at midnight, and usually having a drink of something suitable for raising a toast to the passing of the old and the arrival of the new. Last night I didn't intend to…
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I ran across a 50-cent copy of Randall Jarrell's Poetry and the Age a while back, and have been reading it a little at a time. He closes the first essay with this quotation; I mention that because I think it would be dishonest for me to leave you thinking I've read Proust: All that we…
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This appeared one day last week in Dear Abby: DEAR ABBY: I read the obituaries in our local newspaper every day to see if someone I know has died. But when I don't see any familiar name, I feel let down and disappointed. Is that weird? — STILL ALIVE IN SAN DIEGO Here's the heading…
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Recent to me, I mean. Not very recently made. Devotion Made in 1946, this purports to be a biography of the Bronte sisters, but can most generously be described as "based upon." Among other historical crimes, it invents a love triangle involving Charlotte, Emily, and their clergyman father's vicar. It stars Ida Lupino as Emily…
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I went off on another trail, as is my tendency, and haven't finished this book yet. But at this point, about halfway through, I think it may be the best book I've ever read on the contemporary social-political situation. Maybe that's not saying a lot, since I haven't read many such books. Suffice to say…
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Shakespeare in the original pronunciation. Completely fascinating.
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This is not a review, because I'm only on page 68 of this book. But I can't resist quoting from it. So far it seems to be the most incisive and thorough critique of liberalism I've seen. It's plain that liberalism, the doctrine of maximum freedom for all, is in fact exhibiting a paradoxical drift…
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The New York Times has one of many obituaries. I've read three of his novels: The Hunted, Killshot, and Bandits, in that order. Bandits was a book on tape, and I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that I liked it a bit less than the other two. But I thought…
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Only one thing ever makes you safe–putting your trust in God. –Caryll Houselander
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Yes, as I may or may not have said in that long piece about Lovecraft last week, I had decided after those three novellas that I didn't need to read any more Lovecraft now, and perhaps not ever. But one day I needed something to read while eating lunch and the only reading matter I…
Light On Dark Water 