Eric Rohmer, Novelist

Eric Rohmer, Novelist

by | Oct 10, 2021

By Trevor Cribben Merrill To say that Eric Rohmer is the most literary of directors verges on a commonplace. But that doesn’t make the observation any less true. His romantic comedies tend to feature members of the French upper bourgeoisie having deep conversations...
The Risks of Levity

The Risks of Levity

by | Dec 13, 2020

Milan Kundera, Ambiguous Prophet Trevor C. Merrill “Those no longer able to see reality with their own eyes are equally unable to hear correctly,” writes Josef Pieper. “It is specifically the man thus impoverished who inevitably falls prey to the demagogical spells of...
A Virus and a Fall of Rome

A Virus and a Fall of Rome

by | Aug 9, 2020

Scarpia by Piers Paul Read. Bloomsbury, 2016. Hardcover, 364 pages, $27. Reviewed by Trevor C. Merrill You could enjoy this novel about a young Sicilian rising through the ranks of Roman society in the 1790s without knowing anything about Puccini’s Tosca. It’s a...
Faith and Works and the Novel

Faith and Works and the Novel

by | Feb 16, 2020

The Decline of the Novel by Joseph Bottum. St. Augustine’s Press, 2019. Hardcover, 153 pages, $25. Reviewed by Trevor C. Merrill In this wide-ranging essay, Joseph Bottum has managed to turn a stale topic—the death of the novel—into fresh cultural criticism, arguing...
Sacrificial Crisis

Sacrificial Crisis

by | Nov 3, 2019

Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery, directed by Danya Taymore Playwrights Horizons (New York), September 13–November 17, 2019. Reviewed by Trevor C. Merrill Will Arbery has described his new play as a six-part fugue. Its subject—the kernel from which the rest...