Fiction Archives

'A Christmas Carol' & Beyond: Shorter books, please! [1] - The writer I used to be would be appalled by the writer I have become. A butcher. Back in the days before you could get credit at Harvard for t

2182 Kilohertz, David Masiel [2] - I've just read a stunning news item: So much of the Arctic ice cover has disappeared “that a ship could sail unhindered from Europe's most n

A Million Little Pieces, James Frey [3] - I am old enough to have lost friends to drugs and alcohol addiction.

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, Peter Handke [4] - The Sunday edition of the Kärnter Volkszeitung carried the following item under 'Local News': 'In the village of A. (G.

A Stranger Like You, Elizabeth Brundage [5] - Hugh Waters has a problem --- no, Hugh Waters is a problem. He’s the original nowhere man: dead-end job at an insurance company, childless

A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan [6] - Jennifer Egan won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now she’s added the Pulitzer Prize. You would be entirely forgiven if th

About the Author: A Novel, John Colapinto [7] - There are evenings when the invite to the duchess’s ball didn’t arrive and there’s nothing on TV, not even a black-and-white film on

After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, Jean Rhys [8] - The favorite writer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is rumored to be Jean Rhys (1890-1979).

Alan Furst: Blood of Victory [9] - Countries need oil for blood, steel for bone, rubber for feet. And in wartime, even more so. Think back to your American History courses.

Alan Furst: Dark Voyage, Alan Furst [10] - I spent my free moments this week reading my favorite kind of book --- one you can't put down.

Alan Furst: Spies of the Balkans [11] - It’s a bittersweet day around here when a new Alan Furst novel arrives. On the plus side: I get to spend an entire day reading about 1939 or 194

Alan Furst: The Foreign Correspondent [12] - The reason I have avoided thrillers all my reading life is sex. The heroes of these books are usually manly men, built on the John Wayne model.

Alan Furst: The Spies of Warsaw [13] - The “spy” is “an ordinary-looking man, who led a rather ordinary life” --- he's a mid-level engineer at a German ironworks, m

Alice Bliss, Laura Harrington [14] - Tell me you wouldn’t react as I did. The name of the novel is “Alice Bliss.” That is, not surprisingly, the name of the 14-year-old

Alice Bliss, Laura Harrington [15] - Tell me you wouldn’t react as I did. The name of the novel is “Alice Bliss.” That is, not surprisingly, the name of the 14-year-old

All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque [16] - I'm trying to recall a novel about war that makes it sound like a good thing.

All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren [17] - The 1946 novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Robert Penn Warren and is generally considered the greatest of all American political novels. It asks

Andre Dubus: Selected Stories [18] - He was a small boy from Louisiana who listened to the opera on the radio on Saturday afternoons.

Antonya Nelson: Female Trouble [19] - Both her parents were English professors, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that Antonya Nelson grew up writing stories.

Arrowsmith, Sinclair Lewis [20] - Sinclair Lewis is the bookend to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Both were born in Minnesota. Fitzgerald went to Princeton, Lewis to Yale.

Links:
[1] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/christmas-carol-and-beyond-shorter-books-please
[2] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/2182-kilohertz
[3] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/million-little-pieces
[4] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/sorrow-beyond-dreams
[5] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/stranger-you
[6] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/visit-goon-squad
[7] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/about-author-novel
[8] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/after-leaving-mr-mackenzie
[9] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/blood-victory
[10] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/dark-voyage
[11] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/alan-furst-spies-balkans
[12] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/foreign-correspondent
[13] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/spies-warsaw
[14] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/alice-bliss
[15] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/alice-bliss-0
[16] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/all-quiet-western-front
[17] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/all-kings-men
[18] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/selected-stories
[19] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/antonya-nelson-female-trouble
[20] http://www.headbutler.com/books/fiction/arrowsmith
[21] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=1
[22] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=2
[23] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=3
[24] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=4
[25] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=5
[26] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=6
[27] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=7
[28] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=8
[29] http://www.headbutler.com/archives/books/fiction?page=9