Phyllis 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 journal writing, and as a meditation on life, love and death. Aspiring writers would do well to study Theroux. Her … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in books
Former President George W. Bush. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Chauncey MabeThe economy may still look scary, but for South Florida’s four major literary festivals, there will be no double-dip recession. Learning from last year’s challenges, each plans robust programs for the serious and casual book lover over the coming season.Take Miami Book Fair … [Read more...]
ArtsPreview 2010-11: The season in books
The economy may still look scary, but for South Florida’s four major literary festivals, there will be no double-dip recession. Learning from last year’s challenges, each plans robust programs for the serious and casual book lover over the coming season. Take Miami Book Fair International (Nov. 14-21), the region’s oldest and biggest literary festival, and the first one on … [Read more...]
Book review: Account of nun’s death while fleeing Tibet proves riveting
Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape From Tibet, by Jonathan Green; 272 pp.; PublicAffairs; $26.95 By Bill WilliamsEach year thousands of Tibetans attempt to flee their homeland by embarking on a perilous journey over snow-covered mountains. Some die along the way, and others are captured, jailed and tortured by Chinese soldiers.Most … [Read more...]
Account of nun’s death while fleeing Tibet proves riveting
Each year thousands of Tibetans attempt to flee their homeland by embarking on a perilous journey over snow-covered mountains. Some die along the way, and others are captured, jailed and tortured by Chinese soldiers. Most often their plight receives little international attention. But the case of Kelsang Namtso, a 17-year-old nun, was different because mountain climbers … [Read more...]
Book review: Alert the Squid Squad! The kraken is (lamely) on the loose!
Kraken, by China Miéville; Ballantine Books; 509 pp.; $26.By Chauncey MabeWhy is it that genre writers, just when they are about to step onto a wider stage of literature, tend to lose heart – or nerve?I first noticed this in 1998 when Stephen King, after almost a decade of increasing critical acceptance, retreated to the comforts of Bag of Bones, an … [Read more...]
Alert the Squid Squad! The kraken is (lamely) on the loose!
Why is it that genre writers, just when they are about to step onto a wider stage of literature, tend to lose heart – or nerve? I first noticed this in 1998 when Stephen King, after almost a decade of increasing critical acceptance, retreated to the comforts of Bag of Bones, an overlong, overstuffed supernatural thriller of the kind that made him famous earlier in his career. … [Read more...]
Book review: Soldiers of ‘Untold War’ bear the awful moral burden alone
By Bill WilliamsMost civilians are unaware of the physical and psychic horrors endured by soldiers, according to this timely new book by Nancy Sherman, a professor at Georgetown University.Sherman says up front that The Untold War “is not a political tract for or against a war.” Rather, it is about “the inner battles … the moral weight of war that individual … [Read more...]
Soldiers of ‘Untold War’ bear awful moral burden alone
Most civilians are unaware of the physical and psychic horrors endured by soldiers, according to this timely new book by Nancy Sherman, a professor at Georgetown University. Sherman says up front that The Untold War “is not a political tract for or against a war.” Rather, it is about “the inner battles … the moral weight of war that individual soldiers carry on their shoulders … [Read more...]
Book reviews: Two good novelists go seriously astray with latest efforts
By Chauncey MabeIf Harold Kushner had been a literary critic instead of a rabbi, he might have asked, “Why do bad books happen to good writers?” And if Leo Tolstoy had also been a critic, he might have answered, “All good books are alike, while every bad book goes bad in its own way.”These bloody thoughts are occasioned by Henning Mankel and Jim Crace, novelists … [Read more...]