Fiction Archive |
Antonya Nelson: Female Trouble - Both her parents were English professors, so it wasn’t entirely surprising that Antonya Nelson grew up writing stories. Or that her mother would give her an entry form to a
Arrowsmith - Since the election, classic dystopian fiction has become a Thing. One of those novels is about fascism coming to the United States: "It Can't Happen Here," by Sinclair Lewis. [To
Arthur Miller: Focus - Almost no one knows about Arthur Miller's one and only novel. If you’re aware of “Focus,” it’s probably because of the movie adaptation, starring William H. Macy, Laura Dern and Meat
At Risk - You don’t forget the books that stop you in your tracks. In 1988, that book was “At Risk,” Alice Hoffman’s novel about an 11-year-old girl who gets AIDS from a blood
Badenheim 1939 - When Aharon Appelfeld, one of Israel's greatest writers, died in 2018, The Times gave him the "great writer" obituary. But the odds that you know his name or have read
Barbara Finkelstein: In Defense of Long Books - "I don't get it," JK recently wrote. "Who has the time to read a 400-600 page novel?" In the immortal words of 30 Rock's Liz Lemon, "What the what?" I read
Beach Reading - In Ye Olde Days, I used to do all my heavy reading in the summer and, if possible, on the beach. This made sense --- to me, anyway. Why read
Beautiful Ruins - I hadn't read a word by Jess Walter until this, but his books are consistently honored: Time Magazine's #2 novel of the year, finalist for the National Book Award, winner
Before and After - Rather than endure the dreadful and marginally accurate televised news in the morning, I watch a few minutes of a dreadful and fake movie on Lifetime. Really, you should try it. Consider
Beverly Willett on Flannery O’Connor: “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” - BEVERLY WILLETT wrote "Disassembly Required: A Memoir of Midlife Resurrection," the best memoir I read last year. [For my review and an excerpt, click here.] She lives in Savannah,
Birds in Fall - The novel starts inside the plane. Eighty minutes into the flight, just as the jet curves over the Gulf of Maine toward Nova Scotia and the moonlit
Black & White - There's a long tradition of turning kids into money. Shirley Jackson --- you recall her from English class; she wrote “The Lottery” --- wrote several books
Black Beauty - The last book Ludwig Wittgenstein read --- the book he read as he lay dying --- was "Black Beauty." I have always wondered why. Wittgenstein was arguably the greatest philosopher of the
Blame: A Novel - I saw nothing in The Shriver Report about female alcoholism, yet it’s estimated that a third of America’s 18 million alcoholics are women. Six million women. That’s not an easy
Bonjour Tristesse - "I had a strong desire to write and some free time,” Françoise Sagan recalled. “And in two or three months, working two or three hours a day, I was done.” Her
Books for a Book Club - A book club asked me to help them choose between “The Goldfinch” (771 pages), “All the Light We Cannot See” (551 pages) and “Go Set a Watchman” (a rejected first
Bright’s Passage - My grandmother, as ignorant a woman as ever fled the Czar, believed that “Mr. Ed” really was a talking horse --- here you have to imagine a thick Russian accent
Cassandra at the Wedding - COSTCO'S BOOK OF THE MONTH: Pennie Clark Ianniciello, Costco's book buyer, has chosen "The Wedding Thief" by Mary Simses, as her pick of the month for July. In Costco Connection,
Chick Lit? Women’s Literature? Why Not Just….Literature? - A line I wrote the other day struck a nerve, and a reader responded. And not just a smart, sensitive soul. Diane Meier is a novelist with a personal story to
Childhood’s End - It's probably the greatest opening in all of science fiction. Earthlings are going about their lives when they suddenly notice movement in the sky. And there they are --- alien spaceships, miles
