Farewell to Religion? Taylor, Charles (2007). A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 874 pp. $40, ISBN 9780674026766 Charles Taylor, eminent, prize-winning philosopher, asks this question: “…Why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God … Continue reading
We’re All Storytellers Llosa, Mario Vargas (1989). The Storyteller. Helen Lane (trans.) New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux An unnamed first-person narrator, traveling in Florence, tells two stories. One is about his lifelong fascination with the pre-industrial, unacculturated tribes of the Amazon … Continue reading
A Phenomenology of Love Winterson, Jeanette (1992) Written on the Body. New York: Vintage This is a love story, a poetic tale about an unnamed, first-person narrator and a married woman, Louise. Much has been made by reviewers about the … Continue reading
The Spy Who Went Into the Cold Steinhauer, Olen (2009). The Tourist. New York: Minotaur/St.Martins. This is a well-written spy novel, which measures up to some of Le Carre’s lesser works, such as The Mission Song or Single & Single. As with Le Carre, … Continue reading
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