Writing For the Money Grisham, John (2002). The Summons. New York: Random House. A lawyer in Mississippi finds three million dollars in cash in his father’s house after the old man dies. The money is not mentioned in the will, and … Continue reading
Meaning in Each Grain of Sand Abe, Kobo. (1960-1962/1991). Woman in the Dunes. New York: Vintage. This novel is considered by many to be Abe’s best, and a prime example of mid-century Japanese fiction. It’s difficult to determine exactly when it was … Continue reading
A Moving Allegory Coetzee, John. M. (1999/2008). Disgrace. New York: Penguin, 220 pages. Written shortly after the end of apartheid in South Africa, the story tells of a professor who has sex with a student, and when the affair becomes public, … Continue reading
Can Ramblings Make a Novel? Markson, David (1988). Wittgenstein’s Mistress. Champaign, Ill.: Dalkey Archive Press. This 250-page book is presented as the almost-stream-of-consciousness of a middle-aged woman who is the last living animal on earth. Unlike Joyce’s Ulysses, it is … Continue reading
Action-Thriller With Literary Chops McCarthy, Cormac. (2005). No Country for Old Men. New York: Vintage. An aging sheriff in 1980’s Texas despairs over the violent crime drugs trafficking has brought to his county, making it into a landscape he hardly … Continue reading
Reflection of a Fatal Flaw Ishiguro, Kazuo (1988). The Remains of the Day. New York: Random/Vintage. 245 pp. In 1956, an English butler reflects back on his life of service to a grand aristocrat in a grand mansion, Darlington Hall, during … Continue reading
How Big is the Fourteen-inch Pizza? Adams, W.A. (2009). Embodied Cognition Gropes for Cohesion.[Review of the book, Embodiment, Ego-Space, and Action]. PsycCRITIQUES—Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, February 18, vol 54, release 7, article 6. I once heard a customer in … Continue reading