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
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