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Alan Bray
Sep 24, 20204 min read
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free
This week, a new book, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free written by Andrew Miller, published in 2019. I first read it earlier this year,...
Alan Bray
Sep 17, 20204 min read
What Is This Thing Called Love
An early review of “A Sport and a Pastime,” states that to live for sex alone is to be less than human. I don’t know. On the face of it,...
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Sep 10, 20204 min read
"Country" in a Chanel Suit
An oft-noted distinction within literary texts is whether they emphasize showing the characters in action over telling the reader about...
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Sep 3, 20203 min read
Imaginary Friends
Since writing last week’s post, I’ve been up around three a.m., worrying about what I wrote last time, worrying about the effect of my...
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Aug 27, 20204 min read
Time and "Sport"
This week, let’s look at how time is handled in “A Sport and a Pastime.” In his great book, “The Perpetual Orgy,” Mario Vargas Llosa...
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Aug 20, 20203 min read
Truthiness
Last wee k, we began to turn our keen minds toward James Salter’s “A Sport and a Pastime.” Let’s continue. By definition, a work of...
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Aug 16, 20204 min read
A Sport and A Pastime
This week, a new work of fiction, “A Sport and a Pastime” written by James Salter, published in 1967. I first learned of Salter belatedly...
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Aug 6, 20204 min read
He Knows If You've Been Bad or Good
Who is the narrator of “Starting Out in the Evening?” Is it Brian Morton? Is he “telling” the story, displaced across space and time to...
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Jul 30, 20204 min read
What Do You Do When I Can't See You?
What’s missing in “Starting Out in the Evening” is as significant as what’s present. A lot is missing; the novel consists of...
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Jul 23, 20204 min read
A Manifesto, then Casey
All right, sit down everybody. I’m going to continue talking about “Starting Out in the Evening,” but first I have a few (other) thoughts...
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Jul 16, 20204 min read
Like a Letter from a Friend
One of the joys of “Starting Out in the Evening” is the lovely interconnectedness of it—the integrity, if you will, of a story that...
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Jul 9, 20203 min read
Starting Out in the Evening
This week, a new book—Brian Morrison’s 1998 novel “Starting Out in the Evening.” I saw the film version of this novel first, in...
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Jul 2, 20204 min read
Text/Film
As I mentioned several posts back, I saw the film version of “The English Patient” before reading the book, an interesting phenomenon. It...
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Jun 4, 20203 min read
Tense Mood
Today, I want to write about how verb tenses are used in “The English Patient” to—(WTF? Sounds like a snooze-fest, pal. Maybe catch you...
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May 28, 20203 min read
Tell Me A Story
Last week, I identified two modes of narration in “The English Patient,” the (nearly) invisible narrator who tells the story of the four...
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May 21, 20204 min read
The English Patient
This week, a new novel, Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient.” In 1995 I was browsing in a bookstore in downtown Chicago and saw “The...
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May 14, 20203 min read
The Chastened Narrator
I have spoken at tedious length about the narrator’s voice in “Love in the Time of Cholera,” best beloved. (I’ve been wanting to write...
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May 7, 20203 min read
The Disappearance of Jeremiah de Saint-Amour
Before setting out once again on my discussion of “Love in the Time of Cholera,” I should probably issue, belatedly, a spoiler alert....
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Apr 30, 20204 min read
Holograms
Here’s that first line again—"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” The...
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Apr 23, 20204 min read
Who Is Speaking?
Here’s that first line again—"It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.” The...