the tea lords by hella s. haasse

the plainness of haasse’s storytelling might lull you into thinking this is a simple narrative and these simple characters.  that would be a misconception.   she describes the life of rudolf kerkhoven, who… Read More →

moth smoke by mohsin hamid

i loved this book.   the first novel of a pakistani author (who studied writing at princeton under the tutelage of toni morrison and joyce carol oates) is set in lahore during pakistan’s 1998… Read More →

sometimes a great notion

i’ve committed myself to writing a post about the 50 best novels published in the last 50 years…  so i’m scrambling to read everything that’s a contender.  luckily (for this purpose), i spend… Read More →

AUGUSTUS by john williams

john williams (1922-1994) is my favorite american author.  in 1960 he published a western, butcher’s crossing, which predated cormac mccarthy’s blood meridian by 25 years and  is hands down better than anything mccarthy… Read More →

“to read without joy is stupid”

ever heard of john williams’ novel “stoner”?    find it.   read it. published in 1965, it’s the story of william stoner, the son of poor, mid-western farmers (“at thirty his father looked fifty;… Read More →

“indian summer”

by alex von tunzelmann is a fantastic read. in the beginning, there were two nations.   one was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organized and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swath… Read More →

josé saramago, “death with interruptions”

i’m going on a limb and saying that josé saramago is the best living writer of fiction.   no work of literature written in the last 50 years  is more powerful, insightful and disturbing … Read More →

“the confessions of lady nijo,”

written sometime after 1307 by a 50-year-old woman of aristocratic birth who served at the japanese imperial court and was, from the age of 14, a mistress of the retired emperor gofukakusa, is… Read More →

yiyun li

i wasn’t writing any stories when i was a child.   i mean i did like to make up stories…   but when i was young i was interested only in myself — as… Read More →

“the sacred book of the werewolf” by victor pelevin

this is a very weird book.  i’d been hearing pelevin (russian, b. 1962) called one of the most important “post soviet” voices for a while.   then i  read a  (not very well-written)… Read More →

rabih alameddine, “i, the divine”

i loved hakawati, so ordered alamaddine’s earlier (2001) novel, “i, the divine,” subtitled “a novel in first chapters.”      i was dubious.   a gimmick, i thought.   each chapter is a different… Read More →

the hakawati by rabih alameddine

“reality never meets our wants, and adjusting both is why we tell stories.”    i LOVE this book.   pam suggested i read it when i was talking to her about curating “more stories” and… Read More →

more reading…

“vocabularies of metaphor” will include a series of readings of short stories by their authors.    the series is curated by my friend pam feinsilber and will include yiyun li (september 10th), daniel alarcon… Read More →

andrea higgins’ painting “dorian”

completed (see entry 28 march) in time for a thematic exhibition at the gallery called “summer reading.”     this diptych is a “portrait” of dorian gray based on oscar wilde’s novel “the picture… Read More →

there is a hindu story of an elephant…

there is a hindu story of an elephant – restless, inquisitive, always straying… in india, elephants are sometimes taken through the narrow, fruit and vegetable stall-lined streets. the elephant with his restless trunk,… Read More →