Champagne Flute with an Iron Spine

Champagne Flute with an Iron Spine

by | Mar 1, 2020

Dystopia and Providence in Five Novels Eve Tushnet The political upheavals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries bore all kinds of names, from the euphemistic “people’s republic” to the dystopian “total war.” It’s hard to name precisely what was born of these...
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...
The Last Inkling

The Last Inkling

by | Feb 2, 2020

A farewell to Christopher Tolkien. By Michael Toscano By the time Christopher Tolkien was called up, His Majesty’s Royal Air Force had already been chased off the continent of Europe, losing nearly five hundred fighters over Belgium and France; had turned around and...
Practice Makes Virtue

Practice Makes Virtue

by | Jan 5, 2020

How to Be Unlucky: Reflections on the Pursuit of Virtue by Joshua Gibbs. CiRCE Institute, 2018. Paperback, 239 pages. $16. Reviewed by Elizabeth Bittner If we were to judge a book by its cover, we would likely steer clear of Joshua Gibbs’s latest work. Titled How to...
Prin’s Original Fictions

Prin’s Original Fictions

by | Dec 1, 2019

Original Prin: A Novel by Randy Boyagoda. Biblioasis, 2019. Paperback, 224 pages, $15. Reviewed by Joshua Hren Toward the end of Original Prin our protagonist Princely St. John Umbiligoda sifts through the Duty-Free shop in the Dragomans airport only to find the...