The last time I spent any legitimate time in a library — I mean before this last time or two and not counting those mid-day carrol snoozes on campus so many years ago — I had to decipher the Dewey Decimal System, flip my way through drawers and drawers full of little index cards, wander… Read More Card me
In a mental hospital in New York I visited Savannah after her second suicide attempt. I leaned down to kiss her on both cheeks, European style. Then, staring into her exhausted eyes, I asked her the series of questions I always asked whenever we met after a long separation. “What was your family life like,… Read More Writing and re-reading
I went scouring for reviews of David Mamet’s new novel “Chicago” immediately after turning its last page, mainly because, 1) I’m not a critic, and I wanted to see what others had to say about this strangely literary yet gritty crime story set in 1920s gangland Chicago, 2) I desperately feared I missed something; a… Read More Speak to me
I’m not a literary critic, although the protagonist’s father in Richard Russo’s 1997 novel “Straight Man” is. To be honest, it’s hard to be a critic when I barely know what the word protagonist means. But the Dad in “Straight Man” — who doesn’t make his first appearance until page 343 of my paperback edition… Read More To read on or not
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