Otsuka, Julie, (2011). The Buddha in the Attic. New York: Random/Anchor. This short (129 page) prose-poem addresses the lives of Japanese women who came to San Francisco in the early 1900’s as mail-order brides for Japanese laborers already there. The … Continue reading
Zombies in Love Bowles, Paul, (1949). The Sheltering Sky. New York: Harper Perennial. This classic novel is set in the Sahara of North Africa during WW II, about 1940. A young, American married couple, Port and Kit, travel with their male … Continue reading
Author as Flasher Mitchell, David (2004). Cloud Atlas. New York: Random House. Robert Frobisher, a character in one of the six novellas that make up Cloud Atlas, is a composer in 1931 Europe who describes his new work in a letter to … Continue reading
Getting Small Baker, Nicholson. (1988). The Mezzanine. New York: Grove Press. This strange little book (107 pages) is the stream of consciousness of a generic office worker in a generic company in a generic American city in the 1980’s. He … Continue reading
A Well-told Story With A Hidden Agenda Martel, Yann (2001). Life of Pi. New York: Random/Harcourt. This adventure novel recalls Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and the middle part is a rousing adventure tale of a boy castaway at sea that would be … Continue reading
The Difficulty of Being Funny Lipsyte, Sam (2010). The Ask. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. A book universally acclaimed as “hilarious” is usually disappointing. There are some funny lines and scenes in The Ask, to be sure, and it is … Continue reading
Glimpse Of Another World Silko, Leslie Marmon (1977). Ceremony. New York: Viking. Hailed as a masterpiece of Native American literature, this novel has endured over decades and is still a good read. In part that is because the situation of … Continue reading
Words as Tools Addonizio, Kim (2009). Ordinary genius: A guide for the poet within. New York: W.W.Norton. Poet Addonizio describes her process of creating poetry, supplemented with description of other possible methods, and plenty of fine examples. She recommends everyone … Continue reading
Life in The System DeLillo, Don (1985). White Noise. New York: Viking/Penguin. “White noise” is a hissing sound, similar to static on a radio or the sound of ocean surf. Don DeLillo’s White Noise takes that phenomenon metaphorically. The noise is the incessant … Continue reading
Pouty Financial Analyst Goes Home Hamid, Mohsin (2007). The Reluctant Fundamentalist. New York: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Most novels are written in either third-person or first-person voice Second-person is rare, and there is a good reason for that: it’s clunky. Hamid’s Reluctant Fundamentalist is … Continue reading