Category Archives: fiction

“He wanted revenge. He longed for it. He daydreamed about it.”

Posted on November 15, 2018 by Kate Stover

Is there a person on earth who hasn’t daydreamed about revenge? It’s easy to relate to a person who wants to get even, which is the basic story line in Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood. It’s based on The Tempest by … Continue reading →

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“To live the complete human catastrophe is terrible indeed, but to write about it?”

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Kate Stover

Karl Ove Knausgaard is a Norwegian writer who conducted a public experiment.  He wanted to see what would happen if he wrote honestly about his life, aiming to “penetrate that whole series of conceptions and ideas and images that hang … Continue reading →

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“By turning the experiment of life into a heroic task he was able to turn Walden from a philosophical tract of unattainable goals into a guide for the perplexed.”

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Kate Stover

Jeffrey Cramer argues that if you read Henry David Thoreau’s Walden as an autobiographical record, you are bound to be disappointed.  (After all, Thoreau was selective about what he included, and the bits he didn’t write about – such as … Continue reading →

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“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

Posted on August 11, 2018 by Kate Stover

Stating the premise of your work simply and clearly in the first sentence requires courage. Readers might say, “Is that all?”  Or, some might feel skeptical about your ability to show how an original story can follow from a classic … Continue reading →

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“The waitress seemed to sense that this was not the moment to ask if they had everything they needed.”

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Kate Stover

Of course, the waitress was right: these people clearly didn’t have everything they needed. This is familiar territory for fans of Anne Tyler. We count on seeing an “eccentric ecosystem of relatives and neighbors” who aren’t getting the assurances, stability … Continue reading →

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“He felt as if he was never again going to know the reason for anything he did.”

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Kate Stover

Why read novels?  Jonathan Franzen argues in a Harper’s essay that people are drawn to strong fiction because they like to engage in complex stories that  don’t have simple resolutions. In Anne Tyler’s first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, the … Continue reading →

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“But what could possibly go wrong?”

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Kate Stover

Think of the funniest books you’ve ever read.  Did any of them win literary awards?  No?  As the Washington Post points out, there has long been a “critical resistance to comic novels.” Until now. The 2018 Pulitzer Prize for fiction … Continue reading →

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“Without my voice, and spirit, I am dust, / This is not what I want, but what I must.”

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Kate Stover

In these memorable lines from Mike Bartlett’s play King Charles III, the lead character explains his decision to oppose a law the parliament has passed. He knows his actions will throw the modern British system of government into chaos. People will … Continue reading →

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“The sentences would be like bright juggler’s balls, spinning through the air and being deftly caught and thrown up again.”

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Kate Stover

Or so Rhoda – the aunt in Barbara Pym’s Less Than Angels — thought would happen when “clever” people came to visit the family.  Instead, however, she found that the visitors’ sentences could be compared to “scrubbing-brushes, dish cloths, knives” … Continue reading →

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“I was unable to decide what it was that I found so irritating about her goodness.”

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Kate Stover

Wilmet, the main character in Barbara Pym’s novel A Glass of Blessings, after spending a frustrating afternoon with do-gooder Mary, observes that wicked people were often much more fun to be with. I believe that if Wilmet were a real … Continue reading →

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“Michael reciting the Declaration of Independence was an echo of something that existed elsewhere.”

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Kate Stover

In The Underground Railroad, Michael is a slave in Georgia in the 1850s who was taught to recite, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” This is one of many powerful scenes in this … Continue reading →

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Four Favorite Books from 2017

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Kate Stover

I’ve already written about the best books of 2017 for teachers, and so today I will focus on the other books that I’ve read this year. My “favorite” books are the ones that I am most likely to read again. … Continue reading →

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“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel?”

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Kate Stover

Amor Towles, author of A Gentleman in Moscow, continues: “Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli.” If you, like me, would like a break from the disasters and tragedies surrounding us, … Continue reading →

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“We cross from memory into imagination with only a vague awareness of change.”

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Kate Stover

What are the connections between memory and imagination? Is separateness only an illusion?  These are the two questions that Simon Van Booy explores in this beautiful book.  Readers aren’t handed the answers.  Rather, bits and pieces of the lives of … Continue reading →

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“The pupils formed in line and buzzingly passed a ragged book from hand to hand.”

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Kate Stover

What?  Only one book for all the students to pass around?  In England? In many of his novels, Charles Dickens describes how difficult it was for ordinary families to get any sort of education. In Great Expectations, Pip’s family had … Continue reading →

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