The Trip to Echo Spring

by | Jan 22, 2014 | Book Reviews

What does alcohol afford writers, and what does it cost them?  Olivia Laing profiles six late greats (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Carver, Berryman, Cheever, and Tennessee Williams) and the role booze played in their lives and books.

All that Glitters

by | Jan 22, 2014 | Book Reviews

January 22: “Those commanders and chieftains that shoot at honour and abundance shall find there more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with golden images…”  

Let’s Keep the “The” in These

by | Jan 21, 2014 | Book Reviews

  We’re sometimes reminded to “Keep the X in Y” — Christ in Christmas… memories in Memorial Day… Hal in Halloween, etc. An admirable goal, to be sure—remembering the true meaning of longtime observances—but one that...

An Impatient Life

by | Jan 21, 2014 | Book Reviews

Daniel Bensaid, a leader of the modern French left, issues a memoir of growing up Communist in the neighborhood of Toulouse, adventures in Latin America, and his country’s youthful revolution of 1968.