The Memory Palace: A Memoir, by Mira Bartok. Free Press, 305 pp., $25By Bill WilliamsNorma Kurap Herr was a talented musician when she started hearing voices at age 19. She struggled with schizophrenia for the rest of her life, and was in and out of psychiatric wards and often homeless before she died at age 80.In this new memoir Mira Bartok, one of Herr’s … [Read more...]
‘Memory Palace’ a haunting story of illness, loss and remembrance
Norma Kurap Herr was a talented musician when she started hearing voices at age 19. She struggled with schizophrenia for the rest of her life, and was in and out of psychiatric wards and often homeless before she died at age 80. In this new memoir Mira Bartok, one of Herr’s two daughters, describes in heartbreaking detail her mother’s descent into chaos and its effect on the … [Read more...]
Book review: ‘Unbroken’ tells riveting tale of airman’s survival
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand, Random House, 473 pp., $27 By Bill WilliamsFor weeks, Unbroken has been perched at or near the top of the nonfiction best-seller list, and for good reason.The book tells the riveting story of a World War II airman who survived for 47 days in 1943 on a … [Read more...]
‘Unbroken’ tells riveting tale of airman’s survival
For weeks, Unbroken has been perched at or near the top of the nonfiction best-seller list, and for good reason. The book tells the riveting story of a World War II airman who survived for 47 days in 1943 on a raft in the Pacific Ocean before Japanese soldiers captured him and held him in brutal conditions for the rest of the war. The airman, Louis Zamperini, was a … [Read more...]
Pinsky brings message of poetry’s endurance to Delray festival
As America’s only three-time poet laureate, Robert Pinsky would appear perfectly suited to deliver a “State of the Nation”-style disquisition. Who better to survey the role of poetry in contemporary life -- the challenges (and opportunities) presented by the digital revolution, the rise of spoken-word and hip-hop, the advent of the amazing shrinking attention span? Pinsky, … [Read more...]
Book review: Lippman’s latest busts through genre to literature
I’d Know You Anywhere, by Laura Lippman; 384 pp., William Morrow, $25.99.By Chauncey MabeI doubt Laura Lippman would want me to say this out loud, but she’s not a mystery writer anymore.Oh, sure, the talented Ms. Lippman, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun, is a mystery writer when she’s producing the popular, award-winning series featuring … [Read more...]
Lippman’s latest busts through genre to literature
I doubt Laura Lippman would want me to say this out loud, but she’s not a mystery writer anymore. Oh, sure, the talented Ms. Lippman, a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun, is a mystery writer when she’s producing the popular, award-winning series featuring private eye Tess Monahan. But her stand-alones – there are five of them now – are something else again. Her latest, … [Read more...]
Book review: Gruen’s ‘Ape House’ misses out on animal magnetism
Ape House, by Sara Gruen; 320 pp., Spiegel & Grau; $26.By Terri L. ParkerReading Sara Gruen’s Ape House, I was reminded of one April Fool’s Day when my daughters were 6 and 4.I got up in the morning and excitedly called them: “Come quick, our cat Mittens is talking!”Their astonished but not disbelieving faces as they rushed into the living … [Read more...]
Gruen’s ‘Ape House’ misses out on animal magnetism
Reading Sara Gruen’s Ape House, I was reminded of one April Fool’s Day when my daughters were 6 and 4. I got up in the morning and excitedly called them: “Come quick, our cat Mittens is talking!” Their astonished but not disbelieving faces as they rushed into the living room, expecting to hear our housecat opine for tuna rather than Meow Mix delighted me, and we all ended … [Read more...]
Book review: ‘Journal Keeper’ a compelling meditation on life, love and death
The Journal Keeper: A Memoir, by Phyllis Theroux (Atlantic Monthly Press, 279 pp., $24)By Bill WilliamsPhyllis Theroux offers readers a gift by letting us peek into the journals she kept during six years of her life beginning at age 61.The Journal Keeper excels on several levels – for the pure enjoyment of Theroux’s evocative writing, as a tribute to the art of … [Read more...]