James Wood: Keeping it Squeal

James Wood makes the sign of the cross and blesses the reader of his new article in the New Yorker with some very interesting thoughts. For instance “Does literature progress, like medicine or engineering?” I don’t believe it does, only that the fashions of it do.  Wood here really lands a knockout punch in the first paragraph [...]

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Martin Eden by Jack London

  This quote sums up the book Martin Eden, for the most part anyways. Martin is ill, with love that is and his class-consciousness isn’t really helping his malady. Martin is an ambitious sailor who has a penchant/knack for writing. It is only at the end of the book that he can finally see that [...]

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The End for the Beginning, or the Beginning for the End?

In Literature we have all grown accustomed to the Dystopian and Utopian genres.  That we can perfect a heaven or a hell on earth are thoughts that merit a closer look.  Science and religion, now quite distinct from each other, are the lenses upon which we may view the worlds of Dystopia and Utopia. Now the prevailing [...]

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Frank McCourt, dead at 78…

As you might already have heard Irish-American author Frank McCourt is dead at 78 from melanoma.  Here is a link to the NYTimes.com article about Mr. McCourt: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/books/20mccourt.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

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“I decided I knew nothing.”

When I was in high school I got in trouble during Physical Science class. I was a freshman and didn’t really care for school at all. My teacher, Mrs. Stonbraker, ordered me to write 500 words on why I shouldn’t misbehave. Naturally I wrote something to the effect of: If I misbehave I will not only [...]

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French poetry Today edited by Edward Lucie-Smith and Simon Watson Taylor

This spectacular little book encompasses French Poetry from 1950-70. The superb introduction features critic/scholar Edward Lucie-Smith expounding the History of French Poetry from Nerval and Baudelaire to 1970.  The book presents the poetry in its’ original French and with English translation.  The introduction constantly contrasts American/English Poetry and the evolution of French Poetry. While admitting [...]

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Toni Morrison’s new novel, or how John Updike wrote a half-assed book report for The New Yorker

Take it from me there is nothing worse than reading bad writing which is focused upon more bad writing. Now I don’t know what your stance is on Toni Morrison, (little know fact: she is Jim’s second cousin) or on Updike and frankly I don’t care either. Now, now sensitive reader don’t close your browser [...]

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Dombey and Son cont.

I have ventured further into the land of Boz, I mean Dickens. The last post regarding this novel left one with the cliffhanger ‘How will Dickens develop young Dombey’?  After more reading-I did hold the book kind of close-I have come upon the precise passage that foreshadows young Dombey’s development, though rather ambiguous it goes [...]

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