I finished Jonathan Franzen’s novel Crossroads over the weekend. I don’t read too much fiction, but this was a book I couldn’t put down. Perhaps I will write a review of it when I get the time, but for now...
fiction
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Power of Fiction
Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the most influential public intellectual in America. Jesmyn Ward, a pretty impressive writer in her own right, recently spent some time with him at the New York City coffee shop where Coates likes to write. Coates...
Wendell Berry: “What I stand for is what I stand on”
Wendell Berry has a new book out. It is a collection of essays, short stories, and poetry titled The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings. Brian Barth reviews it at Modern Farmer. Here is a taste: In his latest book, The...
Do Universities “Police the Imagination?”
Madison Smartt Bell, an English professor at Goucher College, a writer, and a finalist for the National Book Award, begins his Chronicle of Higher Education essay “Policing the Imagination” with this story: In the latest issue of Write, a publication of the...
Marilynne Robinsion Wins Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction
Here is the press release: Acting Librarian of Congress David S. Mao has announced that Marilynne Robinson, author of such critically acclaimed novels as “Gilead” and “Home,” will receive the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction during the 2016...
Teaching Evangelicalism Through Fiction
Philip Jenkins has been blogging like crazy over at The Anxious Bench. (I should add that I am on a bit of a hiatus, but will return with my weekly post next week). In yesterday’s post, he wonders what it...
Can a Big, Fat Novel Save Your Life?
Probably not. But that does not make this clip any less hilarious. HT....
More on Ambrose
Yesterday we reported on the way Stephen Ambrose apparently lied about the number of interviews he conducted with Dwight D. Eisenhower. But, as many of my readers know, this is not the first time that the late historian was accused […]
Did Stephen Ambrose Actually Interview Eisenhower?
Yes, but they were not extensive as Ambrose has led us to believe in his many books on the president. In a New Yorker essay titled “Channelling Ike,” Richard Rayner explains how Ambrose only met with Eisenhower three times. Ambrose...
The Lent 2010 Edition of The Cresset Is Here!
The Cresset describes itself as a “review of literature, the arts, and public affairs.” It is one of my favorite religious magazines. Check out the Lent 2010 issue. The following articles caught my eye: Gretchen Buggeln, “The Shape of a...
Looking for a Good Immigrant Novel?
I just finished Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn. It is a wonderful depiction of a young Irish woman in the 1950s who comes to Brooklyn in search of work. Not only does she find a job in a Brooklyn department store, but...