Sunday Morning! “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton
Wharton’s American Gothic at least makes the case that hell is a lot colder than we’d imagined. Her character, Ethan Frome isn’t so lucky.
Category: Books
Sunday Morning! The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy’s great short story “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is really about how we avoid thoughts of death, and in doing so, sidestep our lives all together.
Sunday Morning! The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
Dawnie Wilson’s rocking debut novel “The Final Revival of Opal and Nev” is about the greatest musical group that never existed and all the things they took from each other, and left behind.
Sunday Morning! Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
As a thought experiment, let’s consider Virginia Woolf to be a horror writer; all of her characters are going to die, and they all know it very well.
Sunday Morning! The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola
The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola about the Paris food market is crammed full of enough tasty detail to make your mouth water. It was Antony Bourdain’s favorite novel and Zola’s favorite of his own. Let’s eat.
Sunday Morning! “Parable of the Talents” by Octavia Butler
The second book in Butler’s Parables series shows how our stories can often blind us to reality, but also keep us alive.
Walking Around Thoughts: Little Library Freedom Ain’t Free
Lending libraries began among the lumières who could afford them. Thoughts on public bookcases, private vices, and their discontents.
Sunday Morning! Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel Parable of the Sower posits a future dystopia that’s located just right next door to us, and gives a few glimmers of hope that individuals might work together and make it slightly less horrible.
Sunday Morning! Lucia by Alex Pheby
It’s hard to know quite how to read Lucia, an imaginative and erudite depiction of a woman’s sexual abuse and torture that may or may not have happened.
Sunday Morning! Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
Naturally, Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison is an unfinished work. All things living are unfinished. But what’s there is so tremendous.
Sunday Morning! Revisiting François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René de Chateaubriand tried to find his way in the moments after the old world had ceased to be, and the new one had not yet come into being
Sunday Morning! Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Wild Seed is often called a science-fiction novel, with the sciences being biology and genetics, and really eugenics, rather than space
Sunday Morning! The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright
Richard Wright’s “lost” 1942 novel of guilt, exile, and spiritual initiation has been fortuitously pulled up from the memory hole. It’s no less urgent today.
In Defense of the Middlebrow
Why does the middlebrow matter? Who cares what a Jane or John Doe has to say about the Great Books or politics? The answer is obvious…
Sunday Morning! Brown Dog by Jim Harrison
Jim Harrison’s classic character Brown Dog seems to have figured out life’s secret- we’re just here to play.
The Hunger Games: I Volunteer As Conscript
It’s pretty unfair to say, “but The Hunger Games characters had their agency removed!” I mean, yeah, duh, that was kind of the point.
Sunday Morning! “A Little Devil in America” by Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib’s song of praise never elides Black pain or the reality of racism; but centers and is held aloft by Black miracles.
Explode the Canon: How to Fight a Better Canon War
Let’s explode the Canon and cultivate critical distance, opening up new vistas and leaving behind stale arguments.
Sunday Morning! “Time Regained” by Marcel Proust
We’ve reached the final volume of “In Search of Lost Time” and, finally, our hero has realized the work of his life comes in those moments in which joy, unexpectedly, breaks through the crust of ordinary experience. Now, he can get to work.
Ramona Quimby Is Not A Role Model
I keep bumping up against the same theme. “Ramona Quimby is iconic because she’s so NAUGHTY!” these articles crow breathlessly.
