Horror Stories from Hollywood Hanson, Peter & Herman, Paul Robert (Eds.) (2010) Tales From the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories. New York: Harper Collins. I’m not a screenwriter or even an aspiring one, but I picked this book up because … Continue reading
Sex Without Feeling Hawkes, John (1974). Death, Sleep, & the Traveler. New York: New Directions. I ran across several references to Hawkes’ novels as “literary mysteries,” and I’m interested in that, so I took a look at two of his short … Continue reading
Dream Your Way Inside Butler, Robert Olen. (1983). Countrymen of Bones. New York: Holt. There are two protagonists in this story set in the New Mexico desert at the end of World War II. Darrell is an archeologist digging up the … Continue reading
Adams, W. A. (2007). Innate Intersubjectivity and the Science of Mind-Reading [Review of the book, On Being Moved: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy]. PsycCRITIQUES—Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, October 24, 2007, Vol. 52, Release 43, Article 2. Retrieved October 24, … Continue reading
A Mild Kidnap Kerrigan, Gene. (2005). Little Criminals. New York: Europa Editions This straightforward cops vs. baddies story mostly focuses on the criminal characters, a gang of Dublin lowlife men who kidnap the wife of a wealthy lawyer. The kidnappers are … Continue reading
The workshop I went to recently was called “advanced” because you needed product. You couldn’t walk in with just an idea or an outline. I went with 75,000 words, the ninth revision of a suspense novel. What I learned at this workshop was … Continue reading
A Gentle Crime Novel Abu-jaber, Diane. (2007). Origin. New York: W.W. Norton This novel is in the rarified category of “literary” crime novel, which means the characters are well-developed and the writing is above average (that’s the literary part) AND, it … Continue reading
Wink, Wink; Nudge, Nudge Nabokov, Vladimir (1989) Despair. New York: Vintage. Nabokov wrote this little doppelganger mystery in the 1930’s then revised it in English in the 1960’s. The first two thirds are very slow going, as the pompous, self-aware, first-person … Continue reading
Natural or Artificial? Implications for Science, Religion and Phenomenology [Review of the book, Creations of the Mind: Theories of Artifacts and Their Representation]. PsycCRITIQUES—Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, February 20, 2008, Vol. 53, Release 8, Article 4. Retrieved February … Continue reading
Against Sincerity To frame a discussion of literary vs genre in marketing terms encourages cynicism, because marketing pretends discourse while designed only to separate you from your money. So let’s forget about how the distinction between literary and genre is used … Continue reading