Reviews
August 31, 2010
Adventures in Reviewing Elif Batuman’s The Possessed 4
by Ujala Sehgal
Far be it for me to skive off my part in what was now clearly a swiftly escalating literary collaboration. “You drive a hard bargain, Batuman,” I muttered to myself.
August 30, 2010
Panache to Burn: Christopher Hitchens’ Hitch-22 2
by Matt Hanson
Though we have just now learned that Hitch is dying, delving into his memoir many things are apparent, not the least of which the fact that the man has done some living. If anyone has the right to consider his time not wasted, it’s him.
August 30, 2010
The Great Gatsby Revisited 12
by Sonya Chung
What struck me most is how The Great Gatsby as a “literary treasure,” as something we refer to as a classic, is so much less than what the novel actually is – which is something both gorgeously and impeccably wrought.
August 27, 2010
Words Possessed: Ben Greenman’s What He’s Poised to Do 1
by Theodore Wheeler
The stories in this collection often dwell on the distance between letter-writers and those who receive them, and that much of the correspondence isn’t received by its addressee seems somewhat beside the point. What matters is the letter-writing itself, that which gives sanction to the pen-holder’s yearning. The mail is official, it’s real.
August 24, 2010
Tough Love: A Review of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom 6
by Garth Risk Hallberg
With 2001’s The Corrections, Franzen would seem to have perfected his maximalist method. What might it mean to say that his new novel, Freedom, finds him maturing?
August 17, 2010
Old Tricks (Finally) Come Together: A Review of Paul Auster’s Invisible 13
by Daniel Roberts
Every time there’s a new Auster novel out, I think it may be different, and I give him a chance, and soon find I’m back in the usual territory: identity puzzles, murky timelines, ominous danger. And I’ve given the guy so many chances.
