A Justified Confessions

A Justified Confessions

Confessions by Augustine, translated by Thomas Williams. Hackett Publishing Company, 2019. Paperback, 344 pages, $11. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet Thomas Williams spends a decent chunk of the introduction to his new translation of St. Augustine’s Confessions justifying its...
A Gimlet Eye Beneath a Chapel Veil

A Gimlet Eye Beneath a Chapel Veil

Frost in May By Antonia White Virago Modern Classics, [1933] 2019. Paperback, 224 pages, $14. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet “We work to-day to turn out, not accomplished young women, nor agreeable wives, but soldiers of Christ, accustomed to hardship and ridicule and...
A Slight and Dismal Cachet

A Slight and Dismal Cachet

Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery. Little, Brown and Company, 2018. Hardcover, 512 pages, $35. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet Many years ago I saw an obituary notice in the local gay newspaper. Above a desolate,...

The Naked Emperors

Jews Queers Germans: A Novel/History by Martin Duberman. Seven Stories Press, 2017. Paperback, 384 pages, $20. EVE TUSHNET Martin Duberman, in his recent “novel/history” Jews Queers Germans, rarely describes clothing. He describes, instead, physical attractiveness—the...
Tomboys and Magic

Tomboys and Magic

The creepy-cozy tales of John Bellairs. Eve Tushnet Children fell in love with the tales of John Bellairs (1938–1991) because they perfectly combined creepy and cozy: the laughing skeleton, curled up by the fire with a mug of cider. In novels like The Curse of the...