Trevor Berrett Today the Giller Prize shortlist was announced: Going Home Again, by Dennis Bock Hellgoing, by Lynn Coady Cataract City, by Craig Davidson Caught, by Lisa Moore The Crooked Maid, by Dan Vyleta This is a bit surprising to me. First, I’m almost finished with Going Home Again, and I don’t like it much at all … Read more
Click here to read the story in its entirety on The New Yorker webpage. Lara Vapnyar’s “Katania” was originally published in the October 14, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor I still haven’t caught up with Vapnyar’s last story in The New Yorker, “Fischer vs. Spassky” (my post, with links to story here), so I … Read more
Lucie Brock-Broido’s “Heat” was first published in the October 7, 2013 issue of The New Yorker and is available here for subscribers. Betsy “Heat” is not one of those poems that is immediately clear or satisfying. Nor is it lucid, limpid or lyric, nor musical or personal, nor epigrammatic. It is not wry, clever, witty or funny, and it … Read more
I’ve never been a big fan of Updike’s novels. I’m not sure why that is. It’s possible I just haven’t read them at the right time. Consequently, I gave up on them some years ago and have actually never read any of the Rabbit Angstrom books (though I did try Rabbit, Run). However, I have … Read more
Trevor reviews Herk Harvey’s 1962 horror film, Carnival of Souls. Read the full post.
This post is part of a series dedicated to Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories, from The Library of America. “A Man of Ideas” comes from Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. For an introduction to this series and for links to the other posts, please click here. After spending four chapters with Jesse Bentley and his heirs, “A … Read more
Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Paul Theroux’s “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife” was originally published in the October 7, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Betsy “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife,” by Paul Theroux, is terrific. It’s … Read more
Levels of Life by Julian Barnes Knopf (2013) 128 pp I’ve been a fan of Julian Barnes for years. I was among those who cheered when he won the Man Booker Prize a few years ago for The Sense of an Ending (my thoughts here). That book got a lot of criticism for being too cold, … Read more
Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Joshua Ferris’s “The Breeze” was originally published in the September 30, 2013 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor If Ferris’s last New Yorker piece, “The Fragments,” made me reconsider my misgivings about his work … Read more
I have read only one book by Nobel laureate J.M.G. Le Clézio — Desert (my thoughts here) — and I still remember well its atmosphere and depth. I’ve been anxious to read more as I have a suspicion he could become one of my Pantheon authors, but as the years have passed other books have come up … Read more