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Conscious Streams
“Begin at the beginning," the King said , very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” This quote from Lewis Carroll in...

Alan Bray
6 days ago4 min read


Intermezzo
This week, for your consideration, a discussion of Sally Rooney’s 2024 novel I ntermezzo . Long time readers of this blog will recall...

Alan Bray
Aug 84 min read


Ghost
Good day. We have been exploring Frederick’s Busch’s short story Domicile , and last time, I stated that I was putting off discussing a...

Alan Bray
Aug 14 min read


Domicile
Frederick Busch’s short story Domicile was published in 2000. It is written in first person and simple past tense; the tone (as in much...

Alan Bray
Jul 254 min read


A Misunderstanding
Good day. We ended up last time in our exploration of Frederick Busch’s short story Are We Pleasing You Tonight? with a question as we...

Alan Bray
Jul 184 min read


Are We Pleasing You Tonight?
Frederick Busch’s short story Are We Pleasing You Tonight? concerns the owner or manager (it’s never clear which) of an upscale...

Alan Bray
Jul 114 min read


Ralph Part Two
Last time, I stopped in the midst of discussing Frederick Busch’s short story Ralph the Duck , writing in particular about how Busch...

Alan Bray
Jul 44 min read


Frederick Busch Short Stories
This week, I want to look at three short stories by Frederick Busch: Ralph the Duck, Are We Pleasing You Tonight, and Domicile . Busch, a...

Alan Bray
Jun 275 min read


That Was How I Gave Up Micol
As I wrote last time, we’ve been looking at largely content and meaning issues in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, and last time, we...

Alan Bray
Jun 204 min read


Building A Story
Over the past several weeks, we’ve been looking at The Garden of the Finzi-Continis through the lens of content and meaning, pondering...

Alan Bray
Jun 133 min read


Stendahl Syndrome
There are several interesting literary references in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis that enrich the story. Certainly, it begins with a...

Alan Bray
Jun 63 min read


Forever Young
‘Kay, this is supposed to be part two of a discussion on whether The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is primarily a love story or a story...

Alan Bray
May 305 min read


Love Story
Last time, I suggested that The Garden of the Finzi-Continis was more a story of unrequited love than one about the Holocaust....

Alan Bray
May 235 min read


The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Today, dear friends, a new story, Giorgio Bassani’s 1962 novel The Garden of the Finzi-Continis . The book won the Viareggio prize in...

Alan Bray
May 163 min read


Moth
Over the past several weeks, we’ve been considering some different aspects of Susan Minot’s fine novel, Evening . Today, I’d like to call...

Alan Bray
May 23 min read


What's It All About?
A major distinction in literary works is whether a story’s plot is linear or circular. A linear plot expresses cause and effect—A leads...

Alan Bray
Apr 255 min read


Imperfect
Good day! Let’s get started. (chairs scraping on a dry floor, murmurs from the audience, coughing) Mr. Speaker! Your exaltedness! Call...

Alan Bray
Apr 184 min read


Time Travel
Evening uses several styles of narration to show different experiences of time. The chapter entitled A Pale Bay begins: She kept the...

Alan Bray
Apr 114 min read


Evening
This week, dear friends, we begin an exploration of a new book, Susan Minot’s 1998 novel, Evening . If one reads back of the book blurbs...

Alan Bray
Apr 45 min read


Masks
As we read and re-read Frederick Busch’s The Night Inspector , we may ask ourselves, what is the book’s major theme, my bro? (This is...

Alan Bray
Mar 284 min read