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Jean Echenoz: Command Performance

March 4, 2025

Jean Echenoz’s Command Performance is a noir-tinged, absurdist romp — full of wit, detours, and dead ends. But does its playful subversion delight or exhaust? I found myself teetering on the edge of both. Read my review here.

Colm Tóibín: “Five Bridges”

March 3, 2025

Colm Tóibín is back in The New Yorker with “Five Bridges”—what’s in store?

Elsa Morante: Lies and Sorcery

February 25, 2025

In Lies and Sorcery, Elsa Morante’s relentless exploration of obsession, manipulation, and abuse is brought to life in a mesmerizing translation by Jenny McPhee, offering a complex reading experience that both captivates and repels.

Joseph O’Neill: “Keuka Lake”

February 24, 2025

This week’s New Yorker fiction is Joseph O’Neill’s “Keuka Lake.”

M.F.K. Fisher: How to Cook a Wolf

February 21, 2025

Have you ever read M.F.K. Fisher’s culinary classic How to Cook a Wolf? I had not, but I’m so glad I did! Here are some of my thoughts.

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Episodes of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast: discussions of books and authors, shaped by curiosity, rereading, and the pleasures of talking things through.

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The Mookse and the Gripes Instagram features a more immediate space with posts and videos about current reads, recent finds, including a steady dose of Criterion films.