Monthly Archives: September 2014

“We are, I know not why, double within us.”

Mark Haddon’s extraordinary novel The Red House appears to be built on the ideas and style of the essays written by Michel de Montaigne in the 1500s, and I can’t think of a better, more inventive, choice. As we see with … Continue reading

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“If trees could speak they wouldn’t. . .

The poem continues: “. . . only hum some low green note, roll their pinecones down the empty streets and blame it, with a shrug, on the cold wind. During the day they sleep inside their furry bark, clouds shredding … Continue reading

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“…I lived in a series of all-decisive moments, and the intensity was so great that sometimes life felt almost unlivable….”

This is not a book for readers who hate getting lost when a scene on page 105 doesn’t get resolved until page 340. It is for readers who would like to see how a literary genius describes the challenges and boredom … Continue reading

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“Which way lies truth, in the end? In power, or in Art?”

Novelists make assumptions about their readers’ interest in technical details, whether they’re writing about sabotage, romance or philosophy.  The Elegance of the Hedgehog is written by a philosophy professor who assumes we want to know the technical details of her two … Continue reading

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