Articles by Charles-Adam Foster-Simard
May 9, 2013
The Black and the White: Maus and the Art Spiegelman Exhibit 1
Born from universal ideas, crafted by the hands of artists, written with passion, the comic strip has become the medium for narratives that can be read again and again and images that can be stared at pensively in the hushed space of a museum.
November 19, 2012
The Lies We Tell: Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth 4
In a traditional spy/thriller/whodunit, the end reveal is never as interesting as the tension-filled pages of clues and red herrings that got you there. On the contrary, Sweet Tooth is a much finer novel in retrospect, once the final chapter and its revelations have been absorbed.
June 20, 2012
At Night, All Books Are Bright 12
There are two types of people: owls and larks. I’ve always wanted to be an owl myself. To say “I just spent the day writing” makes it sound like a mind numbing nine-to-five job. But to say “I spent the night writing” elevates the activity to something compelling and secret.
July 15, 2011
Quintessentially English: Middlemarch Between Bristol and Bath 6
Railway tracks get recycled into public pathways, now; in Middlemarch, they aren’t built yet, and exist only in the form of industrial agents who come to plan their route through the fields, to the dismay of the farmers who don’t understand what they want.
March 17, 2011
Henry James and the Joys of Binge Reading 18
It is clear that James is not passé, and never was. He is, in fact, perhaps more relevant than ever; but his works lie in a strange place outside of time, and they were written that way.
July 23, 2010
On My Shelves 7
Sometimes I wish I were that man in the Twilight Zone episode who finds himself in the ruins of a public library, with lots of food and all the time in the world to read all the books he wants.