Reviews
March 17, 2010
The Edge, Too Has Its Edge: Reading Uwe Johnson in New York 1
by Fridolin Schley
Uwe Johnson never quite knew what to do with the self-satisfied authority of superlatives. He was interested in the inconclusive, the ambiguous, and preferred observing things from the edge.
March 16, 2010
Millennium Bridge: John Jodzio’s If You Lived Here You’d Already Be Home 1
by Adam Gallari
Jodzio’s reality is a cruel one, but he is not a writer who revels in this cruelty; rather he respects his characters, and manages to find beauty in even the most dire moments, to elicit empathy towards some of the most frigid beings imaginable.
March 12, 2010
Unaccommodated Man: Robert Stone’s Fun With Problems 3
by Tatjana Soli
Robert Stone is like the friend who orders a round of stiff drinks, holds your hand, and looks into the abyss with you.
March 9, 2010
Send in the Drowned: Margriet de Moor’s The Storm 1
by Matthew Jakubowski
The Storm offers engaging historical details about the ocean’s power over Dutch life. There are demure sex scenes and macabre, watery deaths. Its bleakness – joy seems banal in this giddily dark book – is often thrilling. But the omniscient narration is choppy and unsteady.
February 23, 2010
Brooklyn Underdog: Hesh Kestin’s The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats 6
by Emily St. John Mandel
Shoeshine Cats is admirable in part for its tinge of the improbable, its impossible suavité and secret rooms. Kestin catches us up in a gritty enchantment.
February 12, 2010
Photography Comes of Age: Street Seen 0
by Buzz Poole
More than a collection of captivating photographs, Street Seen establishes the foundation for how viewers learned to consider photography and notions of reality.
