Fiction Archive

How German Is It - If everything were different, how different would it be? That's the kind of question that was fun to ponder late at night in college bull sessions. It's a little different when the

How I Became a Famous Novelist - Steve Hely is one of those annoying guys who not only gets into Harvard, he ends up running the Lampoon and then, after graduation, almost immediately becomes a writer for

I Couldn’t Love You More - Guest Butler Gretl Claggett is a writer, speaker and activist with a mission to help others create more authentic lives. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared in many journals

I Regret Everything - Readers who have dropped in for even a few weeks know that my idea of a love story is The Queen’s Gambit, a novel about a young chess genius who’s

I’m Thinking of Ending Things - You may not want to read “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” but you will. With a pounding heart. And flying fingers --- I read all 210 pages in two

Ian McEwan - He's the most popular A-level novelist in England. And this season, there's a very good movie... THE CHILDREN ACT I say I don’t have a type, but Emma Thompson is it. Not

Ian McEwan: On Chesil Beach - For all the praise that follows, I was irritated with "On Chesil Beach" when I read it a decade ago. It seemed too cleverly plotted, too neatly resolved --- I

Ian McEwan: Saturday - Ian McEwan is England's best living novelist. Pretty much everyone in England agrees. And although I have read only four of his dozen novels, I'll vote with the mob here

Ian McEwan: The Comfort of Strangers - Atonement was the high point for me. Saturday was a good idea, but the last half is ludicrous --- a Lifetime movie plot. You’d never have heard of On Chesil Beach if England’s

If I Stay - You think "The Fault in Our Stars" is the only summer movie that could have your kids --- and you --- in puddles? Here comes “If I Stay.” Published in 2009, it

In a Dark, Dark Wood - Guest Butler Betsy Kane Ellis, when not reading, is a Life Enrichment Specialist at Jewish Family Service of St. Paul and an artist. She loves nothing more than putting books

In the King’s Arms - I get many, many new books each week; there’s no way I can be fair to them all. So I developed a plan: I read the first sentence, and if

In the Shadow of the Banyan - I used to think physical torture was the worst that could happen. But there’s worse: when a man with a gun tells you that you are no longer the person you’ve

Inside Moves - I read “Inside Moves” when it came out in 1978. And I read it again every few years. The usual reason: I’m a fool for novels that have great characters

Istanbul Passage - A brilliant editor told me that the best time to start reporting a big story is after everyone else is finished. The parade of media leaves town, and the people

It Might Have Been What He Said - Isabel Simpson can't say she wasn't warned. John Vance, her close friend and very wise judge of character, told her: James Willoughby was trouble. Yes, James writes well ---

J.D. Salinger - “The greatest mind ever to stay in prep school,” Norman Mailer said of him, and for a lot of people, that's pretty much the line on

Jackie Collins: “The Santangelos” - One of the most unpleasant chores in writing comes at the end, when you beg more famous writers for blurbs. It doesn’t matter that my novel is 7,000 words shorter

Jackpot - Do you know the novels of Jean Rhys? So many don't. And that's criminal --- Rhys was one of the greatest storytellers of the last century. She knew all the

James M. Cain: ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ and ‘Double Indemnity’ - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Since the start of 2023, Amazon seems to have gone on a quiet campaign to rid itself of small sites that, collectively, generate revenue worth noticing — and