For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] I’ve heard people claim that they wish that they were religious in the fundamentalist mode, because it would be so much easier. Easier, they mean, because while the non-believer is a grown-up person who understands that God—like Santa; or like notions of fairness and romance—is dead, the believer still trusts with childish naivety in … Read more
[ad_1] Maybe it’s odd to compare your husband’s cancer diagnosis to the plot of Lost. Maybe it’s odd to recognize the absurdity of death’s first partial hold on us in the structure of a television show. Yet this is precisely what Kathryn Davis does in her memoir: she sees that “the system governing [cancer’s] bestowal … Read more
[ad_1] In Rebecca Kauffman’s fourth novel, Chorus, family relationships, especially those between siblings, are dissected to expose all their messy and glorious complexities. Kauffman accomplishes her dissection of the Shaw family through a linked-story structure. The narrator’s role rotates among the seven Shaw siblings and their father and spans from 1911 to 1959, though not … Read more
[ad_1] Talking with Meghan O’Rourke—the accomplished poet and editor-in-chief of The Yale Review—about her new book was a rare and meaningful opportunity for a substantive personal and professional conversation about a subject that impacts every aspect of my day-to-day life. Deciding how to write an introduction for this interview presented the real challenge: how much of … Read more
[ad_1] Nostalgia, maybe the sweetest and purest of human emotions, carries within itself its own poison. Dwelt on briefly, nostalgia can fade into a sighing sadness. It can transform into frustrated,grasping sorrow for a time or a feeling that can never come back. With the slightest shove, nostalgia can turn bitter and angry. In Dreadful … Read more
[ad_1] We don’t know how you’re feeling, but it’s been a long and difficult winter here in Chicago. Good reading weather, perhaps, but we’re looking forward to the warmer days and longer hours of light just ahead, when we can start shedding our layers and knocking the snow off our boots and maybe sit outside … Read more
[ad_1] “Anyway, a proper pandemic might be quite good for the environment,” says a character in Sarah Moss’s 2009 debut novel, Cold Earth. “Depopulation from the plague did wonders for medieval fauna and flora.” More than a decade later, The Fell—which was published in the UK in 2021—explores that “proper pandemic” scenario through the lives … Read more
[ad_1] The first striking feature of The Books of Jacob—the latest book from Olga Tokarczuk and translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft—is its length. The review copy I was mailed flopped around awkwardly in my hands in a manner reminiscent of a fish’s corpse; for the months that I carried it around, I felt … Read more
[ad_1] “Anyway, a proper pandemic might be quite good for the environment,” says a character in Sarah Moss’s 2009 debut novel, Cold Earth. “Depopulation from the plague did wonders for medieval fauna and flora.” More than a decade later, The Fell—which was published in the UK in 2021—explores that “proper pandemic” scenario through the lives … Read more
[ad_1] “Branding.” Authors hear that word a lot: what’s your brand, how are you branding yourself, does X fit with your brand? Over the course of a writing career, many authors focus on a particular genre, era, or setting to brand their work. But even when you’re perfectly happy in your genre and your brand—like … Read more