Written Reviews
January 20, 2026
Today The Criterion Collection has released a new home video edition of John Huston’s final film, The Dead (1987), giving me a welcome opportunity to return to James Joyce’s story and this magnificent film adaptation.
December 29, 2025
Here is my look at Anita Brookner’s 1990 novel Brief Lives , which explores aging, companionship, and longing with her usual precision and restraint.
December 26, 2025
What a happy accident reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain as I read the final volume of In Search of Lost Time . What a remarkable book, and I absolutely loved John E. Woods’s translation.
December 24, 2025
“For a long time. . . ” And then suddenly I find myself having read the final pages of Time Regained . Here are some brief thoughts upon finishing Proust’s In Search of Lost Time .
December 16, 2025
I finally read Helene Hanff’s The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street , and it’s a quiet delight. Hanff finally makes her long-dreamed-of journey to London, and records it with the same wit, warmth, and honesty that made 84, Charing Cross Road so beloved.
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