A Syrian Islamist Reads Arabic Literature for the First Time

A Syrian Islamist Reads Arabic Literature for the First Time

by | Nov 15, 2020

By Sam Sweeney On January 31, 2020 the French government arrested a Syrian known as Islam Alloush, real name Majdi Nema, which caused a bit of a stir among those who had paid close attention to Syria over the last decade. Alloush was previously the spokesman for Jaysh...
Beha’s Capacity for God: Sophie Wilder Revisited

Beha’s Capacity for God: Sophie Wilder Revisited

by | Nov 1, 2020

What Happened to Sophie Wilder: A Novel by Christopher R. Beha. Tin House Books, 2012. Paperback, 253 pages, $16. Reviewed by Joshua Hren In his new novel The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, Harper’s editor Christopher Beha makes grace a noisome concern, not least...
The Clandestine Poet

The Clandestine Poet

by | Oct 25, 2020

In Code: Poems. by Maryann Corbett. Able Muse Press, 2020. Paperback, 92 pages, $20. Reviewed by Alfred Nicol Maryann Corbett spent thirty-five years working for the Minnesota Legislature in the Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Here is how she describes the...
The Civil Tongue

The Civil Tongue

by | Oct 18, 2020

Wonder and Wrath by A. M. Juster. Paul Dry Books, 2020. Paperback, 85 pages, $14.95. Reviewed by Dan Rattelle It is difficult to imagine a more upstanding literary citizen than A. M. Juster. His work as an editor, lately of First Things and now at Plough,...
Can Whimsy Save the Small-Town Novel?

Can Whimsy Save the Small-Town Novel?

by | Oct 11, 2020

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. Grove Press, 2018. Paperback, 320 pages, $17. Reviewed by Matt Miller Small towns in American fiction have a history as varied as the landscapes they inhabit. Often stifling or enervating, as in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sherwood...