Commentary |
on Chevengur, a novel by Andrey Platonov, translated from the Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler
“… a philosophical novel probing the deepest questions on Russia’s October revolution and the communist society that would follow it.”
Commentary |
on Craft: A Memoir by Tony Trigilio
“Developing one’s craft and then presuming to share the results is what he calls ‘an honorable form of audacity,’ based on the belief that you have done well and have something to share.”
Commentary |
Book Notes: New Music Titles — Brad Mehldau, Sly & the Family Stone, Ella Fitzgerald, and Rock & Roll in JFK’s America
“Mehldau discovered that the disruptive artist is an archetype, and each of its incarnations brings both an innovative maker and a repetition of a strange gesture.”
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on Was It for This, poems by Hannah Sullivan
“The trouble isn’t lack of variety but a certain density of purpose, stretching readers’ attention on little to no stakes; not so much idée fixe as fixation itself, an emotional treadmill …”
Commentary |
on Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Robert Morgan
“Morgan establishes that even with Poe’s odd proclivities, life-threating addictions, and precarious and incessant need to be loved, he will always be ‘one of the most deeply moral writers in our canon.'”
Commentary |
on Tremor, a novel by Teju Cole
“He first aligns our sightline with Tunde’s, then pulls our frame back beyond his. It’s the first hint that Cole, once on the front line of the autofiction boom, is up to something new.”
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on OCTOBERS, poems by Sahar Muradi
“A diversity of forms, often invented, encapsulate both the experiences of alienation and underlying possibilities for deepening understanding and connection.”
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on The Long Form, a novel by Kate Briggs
“… in choosing the hybrid form of the “part-novel” or “novel essay” for The Long Form, Briggs invokes, via quotation, Mikhail Bakhtin’s “conviction that ‘There is never any problem, ever, which can be confined within a single framework.’”
Commentary |
on Lou Reed: King of New York by Will Hermes
“Hermes will often introduce a musical, creative, or romantic partner through the lens of what their common ground was — not a small thing for an artist with whom common ground was hard to find.”
Commentary |
on The Delivery, a novel by Margarita García Robayo, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
“Robayo’s most confident work to date, culling the concepts of the author’s previous fiction to present a surreal tale grounded in a recognizable environment.”
Commentary |
on The MANIAC, a novel by Benjamin Labatut
“AI makes use of a forward-chaining, which describes how one links data together to advance toward a goal, and in some sense that’s how Labatut structures his novel.”
Commentary |
on Giornata, poems by Irina Mashinski, translated from the Russian by Maria Bloshteyn & Boris Dralyuk
“Grieving in language — this is what poet does day by day, as giornata describes the amount of paint an artist can apply to the canvas in a single day of work.”
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on The Book Eaters, poetry by Carolina Hotchandani
“As Hotchandani’s perspective shifts from that of a daughter to one of a mother, her project considers metaphor as a tactic to explore, define –– and perhaps recover –– a life.”
Commentary |
on Late Romance: Anthony Hecht, A Poet’s Life by David Yezzi
“Hecht had an emotionally rough time as a poet, not due to lack of attention (fiercely ambitious, he was well-situated from the get-go) but because of his deeply serious struggle to work out his poetic ‘take’ on the postwar world.”
Commentary |
on How To Be: Life Lessons from the Early Greeks by Adam Nicolson
“In Empedocles’ fragments Nicolson finds a summation of all he has been interested in — the reconciliation of the here and now with the beyond. The universe is shaped by the battle between the unifying power of Love and the separating impact of Strife, but Love is the primary driver of the cosmic cycle.”