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Was politics during the Great Depression really like this?
All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren @@@@ (4 out of 5) Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 novel, All the King’s Men, is widely regarded as one of the best American novels ever written. Seventy years after...
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Another winner from James Lee Burke
A review of Burning Angel (Dave Robicheaux #8), by James Lee Burke @@@@@ (5 out of 5) James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series transcends the bounds of detective fiction and deserves the title of...
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A fascinating Chinese detective novel
A review of The Chinese Maze Murders (Judge Dee #1), by Robert van Gulik @@@@ (4 out of 5) Robert van Gulik’s series of 16 Judge Dee mysteries are set in China sometime during the era of the Ming...
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What? Literary critics I agree with?
I never thought I’d say this, but here it comes. I have discovered that there is, indeed, some overlap between my choices in reading and those of some of the country’s top literary critics. On December...
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An Indian novelist celebrates cricket
Selection Day: A Novel, by Aravind Adiga @@@ (3 out of 5) Aravind Adiga entered the literary world with a splash in 2008 when he won the Booker Prize for his debut novel, The White Tiger. Although I...
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The master of Louisiana noir
Cadillac Jukebox (Dave Robicheaux #9), by James Lee Burke @@@@ (4 out of 5) Veteran detective Dave Robicheaux of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department is reluctantly drawn into a case involving the...
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Rereading Brave New World with a would-be dictator in the White House
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley @@@ (3 out of 5) Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s seminal works of dystopian literature. Critics today tend to group it...
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A terrifying vision of the future in an award-winning young adult novel
Feed, by M. T. Anderson @@@@@ (5 out of 5) M. T. Anderson’s award-winning novel, Feed, is one of the scariest books I’ve read in many years (and it was written for teenagers!). Yet the terror it evokes...
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The “best Norwegian crime novel” is set in Minnesota
The Land of Dreams (Minnesota Trilogy #1), by Vidar Sundstøl @@@@ (4 out of 5) Some 4.6 million Norwegian-Americans live in the United States, about half of them in the Upper Midwest. Nearly 900,000...
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A brief look at 15 important dystopian novels
Dystopian fiction figures prominently in the work of some of the world’s best science fiction writers. With Donald Trump in the White House, and an increasingly fearful public contemplating the...
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Why do novels win literary awards?
A review of Snow Hunters, by Paul Yoon @@@ (3 out of 5) Let’s see if we can figure out why this paper-thin work of fiction won wide recognition and a literary award for its author. Snow Hunters...
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Ten great recent books by Berkeley writers
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think so. So far as I can tell, people living in what has become my home town of Berkeley, California, have been writing an inordinate number of really good books in...
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African writers aren’t all world-class
The African Equation by Yasmina Khadra @@ (2 out of 5) Here’s a story that could have been worked into a terrific novel in the hands of a writer with a trifle of self-restraint. Unfortunately, Yasmina...
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It’s Literature, but is it a good book?
I Saw A Man by Owen Sheers @@@ (3 out of 5) Some writer or critic — I forget who; it was somebody who gravitates to Literature with a capital “L” — defined the content of a novel as “something...
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A detective novel that stacks up against the best work of Southern writers
A Morning for Flamingos (Dave Robicheaux #4) by James Lee Burke @@@@@ (5 out of 5) When you think of Southern writers, the names William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Robert Penn Warren, Tennessee Williams,...
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A brilliant and witty novel about dirty politics
The Porkchoppers by Ross Thomas @@@@@ (5 out of 5) If you’re looking for insightful writing about dirty politics, the novels of Ross Thomas have no peer. Dirty politics, union-style In The...
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Another winner from James Lee Burke
Burning Angel (Dave Robicheaux #8) by James Lee Burke @@@@@ (5 out of 5) James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series transcends the bounds of detective fiction and deserves the title of literature....
View ArticleClik here to view.
What? Literary critics I agree with?
I never thought I’d say this, but here it comes. I have discovered that there is, indeed, some overlap between my choices in reading and those of some of the country’s top literary critics. On December...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Indian novelist celebrates cricket
Selection Day by Aravind Adiga @@@ (3 out of 5) Aravind Adiga entered the literary world with a splash in 2008 when he won the Booker Prize for his debut novel, The White Tiger. Although I frequently...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A terrifying vision of the future in an award-winning young adult novel
Feed by M. T. Anderson @@@@@ (5 out of 5) M. T. Anderson’s award-winning novel, Feed, is one of the scariest books I’ve read in many years (and it was written for teenagers!). Yet the terror it evokes...
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