Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938–1941 By Alan Allport. Alfred A. Knopf, 2020. Hardcover, 590 pages, $35. Reviewed by John P. Rossi There is nothing an author fears more than that his or her book will appear shortly after one with a similar...
Jack: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2020. Hardcover, 320 pages, $27. Reviewed by J. L. Wall Why, I ask students who are reading Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, does John Ames never directly give us his wife’s name? It’s only learned late in the...
Second Readings: Literary, Philosophical & Liturgical Essays by James V. Schall, S.J. American Chesterton Society Books, 2020. Paperback, 293 pages, $14.95. Reviewed by John C. Chalberg Father James Schall is a permanent treasure, a treasure who has now gone on...
Convenience Store Woman: A Novel by Sayaka Murata. Grove Press, 2019. Paperback, 176 pages, $15. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet Keiko just wanted to do the right thing. Eager and goal-oriented to a fault, little Keiko Furukura found the world around her baffling, full of...
Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder. Norton, 2020. Hardcover, 464 pages, $32. Reviewed by Margot Enns In a key scene in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Cal, the darker, moodier brother, blackmails his brother, Aron, to keep quiet about Cal’s...
Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power by Pekka Hämäläinen. Yale University Press, 2019. Hardcover, 544 pages, $35. Revivewed by Santi Ruiz On this year’s Indigenous People’s Day I encountered a curious phenomenon. My social circles are largely...
