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Arts
Books

    Nun-senseNun-sense:  The dazzling art of Boston’s Sister Corita
    The question that arises when you consider the dazzling screenprints of the late Boston artist Sister Corita Kent is: how could an artist so good be so ignored?
    By: GREG COOK


    No ReservationsNo Reservations:  Author John Burnham Schwartz on adapting his novel, Reservation Road
    Rage itself becomes a monster.
    By: JENNY HALPER


    King to C5King to C5:  Kasparov comes to Harvard  
    Greengard, no less eager to make a good local impression, had called Kasparov “the Bill Belichick of chess.”
    By: JEFFREY GANTZ


    American dreamerAmerican dreamer:  Ha Jin retraces his journey
    It’s difficult to think of an American writer with a story more inspiring than Ha Jin’s.
    By: JOHN FREEMAN


    Brit witsBrit wits:  As Nick Hornby and Irvine Welsh face 50, two of Brit Lit’s standard-bearers stare down middle age in very different ways  
    Nick Hornby’s new novel is about a boy. Not About a Boy. Irvine Welsh’s new short story collection is filthy. Not Filth.
    By: MIKE MILIARD


    Thirsty nightsThirsty nights:  Rebecca Barry’s bar stories
    A man walks into a bar.
    By: CLEA SIMON


    Difficult peopleDifficult people:  Tom Perrotta keeps his characters company through the bumps and bumbles of American life
    As a reader of fiction, at this point in life I’m sort of in my late Imperial phase — a sensationalist, easily distracted, with a vulgar appetite for brilliance.
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Blessed be HeBlessed be He:  One Jew’s struggle with God
    Shalom Auslander’s memoir, Foreskin’s Lament, begins with a hoot of a first chapter, one that’s sure to be quoted on nationwide Jewish e-mail chains.
    By: IAN SANDS


    Class actsClass acts:  Richard Russo’s family tidings
    The cast of Bridge of Sighs — Russo’s first novel since his 2001 Pulitzer winner, Empire Falls — may have benefitted from a refresher course with Emerson.
    By: JOHN FREEMAN


    ''Great Journeys''''Great Journeys'':  From Marco Polo to Twain and Shackleton, with a bit of Pico Iyer
    Now that the jungle is withdrawing, and the wilderness is tenanted, the brief of the travel writer has altered somewhat.
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Environmentally yoursEnvironmentally yours:  Two new takes on global warming
    Environmental interest groups, Shellenberger and Nordhaus claimed, simply don’t dream big enough to address the multifaceted monster that is global warming.
    By: DEIRDRE FULTON


    ''Things'' we love''Things'' we love:  Writers extol sacred objects of everyday use — and uselessness
    Until I was 14, I spent nearly every Saturday evening wading through a wealth of antique objects in my grandmother’s small apartment in the Baltimore suburbs.
    By: CAITLIN E. CURRAN


    Touched by graceTouched by grace:  Andre Dubus’s unending gifts
    This, around November, when New England’s bones start to show — and I realized my heart was beating faster. The story had quickened my pulse.
    By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN


    Fallout joysFallout joys:  When the Nirvana explosion rocked Boston
    In his newly published The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock & Roll, Phoenix contributor Brett Milano explores the evolution of the local music scene.
    By: BRETT MILANO


    Common groundCommon ground:  Ann Patchett’s Boston allegory
    Like the American naturalists of the last century, Ann Patchett examines race and class in her new novel, Run.
    By: DANA KLETTER


    Everybody say, ‘Arragh’Everybody say, ‘Arragh’:  Two excellent books about pirates
    Each of these books bears a tongue-in-cheekily arcane subtitle.
    By: CLIF GARBODEN


    Our town?Our town?:  Garrison Keillor on his new novel of Lake Wobegon
    “Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that.”
    By: JEFFREY GANTZ


    War, peace, and Robert PinskyWar, peace, and Robert Pinsky:  The season's fiction, non-fiction, and poetry
    Every few years, a fall publishing season emerges that should remind us that Boston could be the literary epicenter of America.
    By: JOHN FREEMAN


    Talking to HimselfTalking to Himself:  Alan Alda talks to us about his new memoir and what it means to live a successful life 
    There’s a scene in Alan Alda’s new memoir  that’s hard to forget: Hawkeye, age eleven, shooting terminally ill rabbits to a bloody, dusty death.
    By: JENNY HALPER


    Laotian dreamsLaotian dreams:  Colin Cotterill’s Dr. Siri novels
    Dr. Siri Paiboun has a sense of proportion.
    By: CLEA SIMON


    The kids are not all rightThe kids are not all right:  The authors of Restless Virgins talk about the underbelly of teen culture at Milton Academy
    If you lived in Massachusetts you heard about it.
    By: JENNY HALPER


    In search of KerouacIn search of Kerouac:  ‘Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?’ . . . Lowell?!
    Ashare drops me off, frantic Matt Ashare from my paper, swilling coffee in a ceramic mug at the wheel of his sulky-blue Saturn Ion and ranting about dogfighting.
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Aesthetic geniusAesthetic genius:  Why can’t more writers be smart enough to be beautiful, handsome, or at least cute
    When I saw Marisha Pessl in the New York Times Style Section, meticulously posed on an antique chair wearing a pair of high heels and a coy smile, I cringed.
    By: SHARON STEEL


    Cover storyCover story:  The amazing art of ‘Mingering Mike’
    To any true vinyl obsessive, a rare musical artifact — and the story behind it — is often as compelling as the sound in its grooves.
    By: JONATHAN PERRY


    Bouncers tell allBouncers tell all:  Tales from behind the velvet rope
    A young man of my acquaintance, a callow pube of a London club-goer, got himself bounced not long ago from an establishment on the King’s Road.
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Wall of shameWall of shame:  A definitive life of Phil Spector
    In a moment of weakness, he licensed the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” for an ad for the erectile-dysfunction drug Cialis.
    By: BRETT MILANO


    Animal husbandryAnimal husbandry:  Ted Hughes and Les Murray
    Les Murray and Ted Hughes, though they dwelled in each other’s antipodes, had plenty in common.
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Dead white femalesDead white females:  From Fall Out Boy to One Night in Paris, modern pop culture is what it is today thanks to 10 long-expired ladies
    Can you remember the last time you curled up under the covers with Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time?
    By: SHARON STEEL


    Star powerStar power:  Deneuve demystifies — and enchants
    Deneuve has been in the public eye long enough to know that only damn fools reveal themselves to the public.
    By: CHARLES TAYLOR


    Dog livesDog lives:  Jon Katz, Mark Doty, and their best friends
    Dog Days, Dog Years, dog decades, dog centuries . . . where will this madness end?
    By: AMY FINCH


    The Golden Age of ComicsThe Golden Age of Comics:  Comic critic Douglas Wolk on Reading Comics
    Ever wondered what would happen if the famed Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy held a master’s in literary criticism?
    By: JON MEYER


    Breaking the spellBreaking the spell:  Harry Potter’s story comes to an end — but will readers, or reading, ever be the same?

    How did a “children’s story” become the literary epic of our time?


    By: JOYCE MILLMAN


    Bound and gaggedBound and gagged:  Lisa See gets tied up in the Qing
    Girl meets boy; girl loses boy; girl wins boy back. It’s an old story, and it usually works, even when it’s set halfway around the world and the girl and boy are 17th-century Qing Dynasty aristocrats.
    By: CLEA SIMON


    Cold comfortsCold comforts:  Miranda July’s performance pieces
    In photographs, indie wünderwaif Miranda July stares back at us with big, wet blue eyes, curls dangling about her face, lips glistening and parted just so.
    By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN


    Mystic riversMystic rivers:  When G.I. Gurdjieff came to Boston
    Was Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff a charlatan?
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Good eatin’Good eatin’:  Barbara Kingsolver grows her own
    In 2005, author Barbara Kingsolver moved her family from Tucson to a farm in Virginia to embark on a year-long experiment of returning to nature.
    By: DEIRDRE FULTON


    Heat wavesHeat waves:  Summer reads to cool off with
    “Summer joys are spoilt by use,” wrote John Keats, meaning the less you do between June and August, the better.
    By: JOHN FREEMAN


    The man who knew too muchThe man who knew too much:  Philip K. Dick enters the Library of America
    Around the age of 13, Philip K. Dick started having a recurring dream.
    By: PETER KEOUGH


    Ice and fireIce and fire:  Ice Cream’s cold contemporary art, Burning Man’s hot stuff
    Burning Man began as a San Francisco pyromaniacs’ beach party in 1986.
    By: GREG COOK


    Sifting the trash heapSifting the trash heap:  Things I love about the gold and the garbage in comics
    There’s an image in an old Warlock comic book by Jim Starlin that sums up a lot of the peculiar, shared pleasure of reading comics.
    By: DOUGLAS WOLK


    Wall jumpersWall jumpers:  Frederick Taylor’s Berlin story
    In the center section of Frederick Taylor’s book about the Berlin Wall, there’s a November 1989 photograph of rows of Berliners straddling the high cement barrier.
    By: ELLEE DEAN


    Lucky leaderLucky leader:  A worthy life of Kingsley Amis
    Eight hundred pages long, with another 200 pages of notes, The Life of Kingsley Amis is stunningly comprehensive.
    By: JAMES PARKER


    Gumshoes and golemsGumshoes and golems:  Michael Chabon’s Alaskan-Yiddish noir
    Michael Chabon has boundary issues.
    By: CLEA SIMON


    After the Gold RushAfter the Gold Rush:  Michael Ondaatje’s memory plays
    Michael Ondaatje builds his new novel, Divisadero, around a triad of characters.
    By: DANA KLETTER


    Jane IIJane II:  The further adventures of Austen wanna-bes
    No sooner had I finished last week’s review than Shannon Hale’s Austenland turned up on my desk.
    By: JEFFREY GANTZ


    What would Jane do?What would Jane do?:  A guide to Miss Austen's world
    You’ll learn how to dress, how to pay a morning call, how to behave at a dinner party.
    By: JEFFREY GANTZ


    Poetic injusticePoetic injustice:  This life of Donne leaves out the art
    John Donne’s poetic reputation was in pretty bad shape till T.S. Eliot came along.
    By: RICHARD BECK


    The diamond patriotThe diamond patriot:  Bill Nowlin's Ted Williams at War
    The plane shook. The cockpit coruscated with distress lights. And Ted Williams realized the landing gear was stuck.
    By: MIKE MILIARD


    Don’t be afraid of the DarkDon’t be afraid of the Dark:  Murakami’s noirish novel is playful, too
    The typical Haruki Murakami protagonist is torn between women who are unattainably gorgeous and those who are just unbelievably cute.
    An excerpt from Murakami's After Dark (mp3)

    By: ED SIEGEL


    Getting spookedGetting spooked:  Charles McCarry looks back at the Nazis — and ahead to Bush?
    The politics of celebrated spy-novel writer (and one-time deep-cover CIA operative) Charles McCarry aren’t simplistic.
    By: CLIF GARBODEN


    Going under Down UnderGoing under Down Under:  Richard Flanagan’s fish in a barrel
    Everybody loves an outlaw, and Richard Flanagan is no exception.
    By: CLEA SIMON


    Death becomes himDeath becomes him:  Nathan Englander returns . . . at last
    The combination of a gift for narrative, a proclivity for pathos, and a lode of arcane knowledge is put to great use in Nathan Englander’s first novel.
    By: DANA KLETTER


    Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1922-2007Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1922-2007:  The man who fell to earth
    By the time he died on April 11 at the age of 84, Kurt Vonnegut was lauded more as a cultural icon than for literary accomplishment.
    By: JON GARELICK


    Over the topOver the top:  Rick Veitch sends Sgt. Rock to ‘Afbaghistan’
    “Your life. Your war.”
    By: DOUGLAS WOLK


    One hell of a socialiteOne hell of a socialite:  Pat Montandon's eccentric new memoir
    Summer of ’63 with Sinatra, three-times a divorcee, and a gold cape cut from the curtains of the old San Francisco opera house.
    By: ELLEE DEAN


    Best buildingsBest buildings:  Traveling with architecture
    Most travel guides are little more than lists of colorless places in which to waste your money and sanitized tourist traps in which to waste your time.
    By: DAVID EISEN


    Engine of dreamsEngine of dreams:  Tatyana Tolstaya lives up to her name
    Reviews of Tatyana Tolstaya are stuffed with adjectives that strain to capture the vigorous joy of her prose or the terrible engine of her imagery.
    By: DANA KLETTER


    Deadly artDeadly art:  Sorting out the life and career of Leni Riefenstahl
    It’s tempting to see two new biographies of Leni Riefenstahl and assume they’ll push the envelope, and expose the dirt about her personal life.
    By: MICHAEL BRONSKI


    NoncombatantsNoncombatants:  Two novels about the war at home
    It’s perhaps understandable that what we think of as “the war novel” has become synonymous with stories set in the midst of combat.
    By: CHARLES TAYLOR


    Rhyme schemesRhyme schemes:  Some 'Poetry Month' bon-bons
    In honor of poetry month, these books have been plucked from the torrent.
    By: WILLIAM CORBETT


    Heart of the matterHeart of the matter:  Doc Pomus’s blues
    Even among the oddballs of the music business, Doc Pomus was unusual.
    By: JEFF TAMARKIN


    Jerusalem Jane DoeJerusalem Jane Doe:  Yehoshua’s undead in Israel
    Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua’s A Woman in Jerusalem is an odd, perplexing novel — but also shrewd and profound.
    By: CHARLES TAYLOR


    SidewaysSideways:  Lethem heads to the Left Coast
    For his rock-and-roll novel You Don’t Love Me Yet, Brooklyn author Jonathan Lethem went west. No, not to Staten Island. Think farther. A lot farther. Los Angeles.
    By: IAN SANDS


    In Bods we trustIn Bods we trust:  Kennedy’s new book explores the first F-to-M sex change
    Issues of identity have captivated Somerville author Pagan Kennedy since her days as an Allstonite ’zine pioneer back in the mid ’80s.
    By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN


    “A” list“A” list:  Mary Ann Sorrentino on the right to choose
    Long-time abortion rights advocate Mary Ann Sorrentino didn’t write The A Word to change anyone’s pro-life stance.
    By: JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ


    Babbling booksBabbling books:  Chabon, Murakami, Bukowski, and more
    April comes like an idiot, Edna St. Millay wrote, babbling and strewing flowers.
    By: JOHN FREEMAN


    Pop elegyPop elegy:  Critic Rob Sheffield comes to terms with the death of his musical soul mate in Love Is a Mix Tape
    If every generation has its Love Story, its tragic tale of romance and loss, then Rob Sheffield’s Love Is a Mix Tape is that book for those who came of age with indie rock.
    By: CLEA SIMON


    The who behind WhatThe who behind What:  Podcast: Dave Eggers, Samantha Power, and Valentino Achak Deng discuss What Is the What
    Listen to a discussion with Dave Eggers, Samantha Power, and Valentino Achak Deng, recorded at Harvard's Memorial Hall on February 26, 2007
    By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN


    Sorrow floatsSorrow floats:  Chris Adrian reckons with human suffering in his new book The Children’s Hospital
    Chris Adrian is trying to figure out how to bring people back to life.
    By: NINA MACLAUGHLIN


    Indulge meIndulge me:  How the writer of a generation stopped speaking for himself
    If Dave Eggers’s career is any indication, the best way to become a writer of importance is to convince everyone you’re a self-indulgent jerk and then pull the rug out from under them.
    By: CHRISTOPHER GRAY


    It’s all trueIt’s all true:  A year in non-fiction
    Here’s a selection of non-fiction books that the Phoenix liked this year, in alphabetical order by author.
    By: JON GARELICK


    Tales of the timesTales of the times:  A year in fiction
    Here, listed alphabetically by author, are 10 of the best fiction and poetry books the Phoenix wrote about in 2006.
    By: JON GARELICK


    More the mysteryMore the mystery:  Kate Atkinson’s fear of genre
    What’s the big deal about Kate Atkinson? If you read the rapturous reviews of her previous novel, Case Histories, you’d conclude she had written an engrossing mystery that was, you know, more than just a mystery.
    By: CHARLES TAYLOR


    Our real founding father?Our real founding father?:  A lawyer’s story of John Cooke
    It’s just plain too bad John Cooke is not around anymore.
    By: JEFF INGLIS


    Light readingLight reading:  Thomas Pynchon’s up Against the Day
    Maybe writers should avoid the light, whether describing its effect or analyzing its nature, and instead leave it to experts like painters and physicists to worry about.
    By: PETER KEOUGH


* *
BLOGS
  Funny Gamesnanship
posted at 7:18 PM / 10.26.2007
  Terror campaign
posted at 6:23 PM / 10.24.2007
  More Lust, More Caution: Ang Lee II
posted at 6:11 PM / 10.10.2007
  Cautionary tale: Lee on "Lust"
posted at 4:38 PM / 10.5.2007
  This Thing Is A Lot Like That Thing
posted at 3:53 PM / 10.19.2007
  Friday Literary Links: Ungrateful Edition
posted at 12:26 PM / 10.12.2007
  Wednesday: Iron Chef Morimoto at the BU Barnes & Noble
posted at 6:30 PM / 10.9.2007
  Angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night
posted at 11:13 AM / 10.5.2007


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