Tag Archives: novels

The Parable of the Author

Posted on September 7, 2020 by

I am not a big re-reader of books, but at the start of the pandemic I picked-up a copy of Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. If you are not familiar with the novel, it was published in 1993, but was … Continue reading →

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Yes, it can happen here

Posted on September 3, 2020 by

There are a few memorable books that I read during my childhood that had profound influence on my social and political consciousness. Sinclair Lewis’ novel It Can’t Happen Here was one that I’ve never forgotten. The book was published during the rise … Continue reading →

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Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Posted on July 11, 2020 by

This wonderful volume is the 1934 Limited Editions Club re-issue of Erewhon by the English Novelist Samuel Butler, with a special introduction by Aldous Huxley, and illustrated with 10 color lithographs and reproductions of 30 line drawings by American artist Rockwell Kent. The edition of … Continue reading →

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Every Man Dies Alone

Posted on September 10, 2019 by

Until ten years ago Hans Fallada was a forgotten German novelist who had a moderately successful career until the rise of the Nazis. When he died in a sanatorium in 1947, Fallada was struggling with a long term addiction to … Continue reading →

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Happy 200th Herman

Posted on June 19, 2019 by

With all of the hullabaloo about local literary star Walt Whitman’s 200th anniversary celebrations, I completely missed the fact that it is also the 200th birthday of Herman Melville. To celebrate the anniversary, Chronicle Books has published this splendid pop-up … Continue reading →

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Hope For All Of Us

Posted on May 17, 2019 by

The Bookseller has reported that Silence Under a Stone, by the 81-year-old Irish writer Norma MacMaster, has been shortlisted for the Society of Authors’ Awards. What is noteworthy is that it is also Norma’s debut novel. The book, which the Independent … Continue reading →

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The Wordless Novel

Posted on March 4, 2019 by

Created by artist Lynd Ward, God’s Man is the first American wordless novel. Published in 1929 by Jonathon Cape and Harrison Smith in New York, the book is an example of the wordless novel, a narrative genre made of only … Continue reading →

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Still Alarming

Posted on January 29, 2019 by

I first discovered the science fiction novels by Ray Bradbury when I was 10 or 11 years old. In retrospect I’m certain that many of the themes of his books went way over my head. But when I read Fahrenheit 451 I … Continue reading →

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Why Vonnegut Matters

Posted on December 10, 2018 by

Like many Kurt Vonnegut fans I became a devoted reader during my early adolescence. If memory serves, the first of his novels that I read was Sirens of Titan, but it could have just as well been Cat’s Cradle. Of course they weren’t teaching … Continue reading →

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Pierre; or, The Ambiguities

Posted on August 19, 2018 by

To be perfectly honest, I have always been ambivalent about Herman Melville. When I read Moby-Dick in high school, I found it to be an uneven slog. However, his iconic short story Bartleby the Scrivener provided me with a role model for life. The … Continue reading →

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