Articles by Joseph M. Schuster
March 4, 2013
Ordinary People: Jim Gavin’s Middle Men 0
The central concern of his collection is the tension between the ordinary life and the extraordinary. All of Gavin’s protagonists are rooted in the former. “I’m going to Cypress Junior College,” someone says in “Play the Man.” “My step-mom went there, so I’m a legacy.”
October 1, 2012
Thirty Years of Re-Reading Lucky Jim 5
Thirty-plus years after reading Lucky Jim for the first time, I don’t remember exactly what I thought of the book, why it struck the chord it did with me, why it would turn out to be one of the most important books in my life.
May 2, 2012
Reference Point: Fathers and Sons 3
If my father could not directly invite me to connect with him, he could find more oblique ways to bring the two of us together: he could give me reference books as gifts, bribe me to open the books he collected.