Empathy pays. In a confessional age, when the memoir has replaced the novel as the primary literary form, Chris Bohjalian is a bit of an anachronism. In one bestselling novel after another, he wields that always rare literary gift, the ability to create believable characters far removed from his own background and experience. Black children, transsexuals, homeless people, … [Read more...]
Master novelist looks at Caribbean society from below
Most of us have faded photos of grandparents or great-grandparents who seem as alien as creatures from another planet or denizens of a sunken civilization. “Fools in old-style hats and coats,” as Philip Larkin terms them in his famous poem This Be the Verse. In her latest novel, Guadeloupean writer Maryse Condé sets out to unearth, by dint of research, family legend and … [Read more...]