‘It Was the End of Solo Singing’

by | May 22, 2017

The Cypresses Believe in God by José María Gironella. Ignatius, [1953] 2005. Paper, 900 pages.When Eric Hobsbawm suggested that the period 1914–1991 could be called “the short twentieth century,” he not only defined an era but separated it from our own. Few conflicts...

The Last Pratchett

by | Sep 21, 2016

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins, 2015. Hardcover, 288 pages, $19.An agnostic friend once divided the science fiction novels of Ursula LeGuin into “Good Ursula” and “Bad Ursula”—by which he meant whether or not her didacticism hijacked her story....

The Convict-Bourgeois

by | May 23, 2016

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, translated by Michael Hofmann. Melville House, 2010. Paperback, 544 pages, $17.There’s a four-page passage early on in Hans Fallada’s masterful 1937 novel Wolf Among Wolves in which we meet a policeman. At first Leo Gubalke is a...

The Uncozy Christie

by | Oct 18, 2015

A reflection on the underestimated Dame Agatha Christie at 125. Eve Tushnet Agatha Christie’s name is practically synonymous with comfort reading. Her publishers used to promise readers “a Christie for Christmas,” and her works are the inspiration for the mystery...

Et in Academia, Ego

by | Sep 20, 2015

Bradstreet Gate: A Novel by Robin Kirman. Crown, 2015. Hardcover, 320 pages, $26.Death and defeat haunt the college novel. College novels—whether they focus on students or professors—typically tell a story in which the shining promises of academia prove not only false...