Book Reviews
George Saunders: Vigil
I always approach a new George Saunders book with hope. Vigil returns to the afterlife, moral reckoning, and the fragile possibility of redemption. But it left me frustrated. Here are my thoughts.
Muriel Spark: Robinson
I continue my chronological trek through Muriel Spark’s work with her second, 1958’s Robinson.
Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes
January’s pick for NYRB Women 2026 was Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes, which is just celebrating one hundred years.
Susie Boyt: Loved and Missed
Here is my review of Susie Boyt’s Loved and Missed, a painful, attentive novel about grief, in that attentiveness, something quietly enriching.
Muriel Spark: The Comforters
I’m starting a project to read all of Muriel Spark’s novels in chronological order. First up is her debut: The Comforters.
Anita Brookner: Brief Lives
Here is my look at Anita Brookner’s 1990 novel Brief Lives, which explores aging, companionship, and longing with her usual precision and restraint.
Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain
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.
Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time
“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.
Helene Hanff: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street
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.