Mary Beard’s latest is a great exploration of why Classics still have the capacity to shock us, and why that’s important. Here are some brief thoughts on Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old.
David Plante’s The Death of a Greek Lover is a beautiful elegy for his partner of four decades, Nikos Stangos. Recently published by NYRB Poets, it is well worth your time.
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.
Here is my review of Susie Boyt’s Loved and Missed, a painful, attentive novel about grief, in that attentiveness, something quietly enriching.
A lyrical reckoning with land, love, and loss, Daniela Catrileo’s debut novel Chilco, translated by Jacob Edelstein, is unsettling, beautiful, and full of quiet rage.
Mrs. Dalloway turns 100 this year, and to celebrate, I had the opportunity to read Mark Hussey’s Mrs. Dalloway: Biography of a Novel, a fascinating exploration of the novel’s creation, reception, and lasting impact. Here are my thoughts.
I Cheerfully Refuse, by Leif Enger, is a dystopian novel set in a future America where a soft-spoken narrator navigates a world unraveling under the weight of despair and fractured human connections. While the novel offers a chilling glimpse into a familiar dystopia, I found myself struggling with its episodic nature and predictable emotional arcs. Read my full review to find out more about what worked for me—and what didn’t.
Andrew Krivak’s The Bear is a quiet, elegiac novel about the last two humans on earth—and what endures when everything else is gone. A tender story of survival, grief, and reverence for the natural world. Here are some of my thoughts.
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.
