Between the World and Me is a brief autobiography, from the author’s early childhood to present-day adulthood, although it is marketed as a series of letters to his fifteen-year-old son about race in America. That’s a brilliant device, for it … Continue reading
A Light Romp Through Early America Carey, Peter. (2010) Parrot and Olivier In America. New York: Knopf. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French aristocrat, philosopher and historian shortly after the French revolution, in the 1830’s. He hated the Bourbon king who … Continue reading
Wildly Overrated Doctorow, E.L. (1974). Ragtime. New York: Penguin. This impressionistic portrait of New York in the early 1900’s has been widely praised as a “classic,” and has been made into a movie and a Broadway show. I can’t understand … Continue reading