In the last couple of months I have been reading a lot about essays. Of the four books reviews here, the one I’d most recommend for the general reader is the D’Agata. It’s a collection of essays with short introductory notes suited those curious about the shape of the modern essay and how it got there. For a recommendation for the writer I am torn. None of the other books is spectacular and none of them completely reflects my current thinking on the essay. But, I’d say the Lopate contains the … [Continue reading]
Letter Home 4 Aug, 2018
Dearest ones, I went to a lecture last week. Ilya Kaminsky, a famous Ukrainian poet, began by asking “How is life on this shiny planet?” I did not know how to answer him. He taped pictures by Diego Rivera to the wall and read from Calvino’s … [Continue reading]
Ragtime — E. L. Doctrow
It starts out so oddly. It’s off putting. There is a family whose members have no names only markers for their places Mother, Father, Younger Brother, the Boy. Then Houdini crashes his car into a tree and ends up sweating out an afternoon in the … [Continue reading]
Knick‐Knack
This old man - he played one, he played knick-knack on my thumb. This old man, my old man, my man, is a long haul trucker. Here last week, gone this week. Back the week after. Knick-knack, paddy-whack give a dog a bone. I'm singing to the … [Continue reading]
2a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas — Marie‐Helene Bertino
Follow a handful of characters through a single day in Philadelphia. 9 year-old Madeline aspiring jazz singer and newly motherless and in more than a bit of trouble. … [Continue reading]
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