I’ve been putting off writing a review of The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers’ novel about the Iraq war.  It was a finalist for the National Book Awards, and one of the The New York Times Ten Best Books of 2012.   I feel conflicted about it.  In some ways it is a stunning book; and yet by the end I felt it was seriously flawed. I feel both guilty and insecure about my assessment.  I see on the dust jacket the high praise it has garnered from writers like Alice Sebold, Colm Toibin, Anthony Swofford, and Philip Caputo.  A novel … Read More

I hardly ever listen to books on tape, which I regret and keep meaning to remedy.  However, knowing I had a four plus hour drive ahead of me to Madeline Island in Northern Wisconsin, I dashed into our small, neighborhood library the day before I was to leave to see if I could get a book on discs.  The pickings were very slim; I almost gave up.  But then I saw Geoff Dyer’s Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi.  I remembered vaguely reading a review of it when it came out, which had interested me for reasons long … Read More

As soon as I saw that Tony Earley had a short story in the October 1, 2012 issue of The New Yorker, I sat right down and read it.  This was An Occasion for me.  I’m a big Tony Earley fan, based on two of his books: Jim the Boy, a novel published in 2000, and Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True, 2001, a collection of autobiographical pieces about his Southern upbringing.  I love his writing, which is lyrical, full of wonderful Southern details familiar to me, and deceptively simple.  He grew up … Read More

In my last post I commented that one reason I liked Carol Anshaw’s Carry the One so much was that I felt the writer’s sensibility permeated the novel.  There’s a unique personality behind the curtain, narrating and describing even as the third person point of view ranges among a number of characters.  The novel has what I think of as voice.  I’ve tackled the subject of voice in writing in an article in which I described it as “the external manifestation, in language, of the writer’s sensibility: how she sees the world; her values; what she is attracted to … Read More

Since I posted on Carol Anshaw’s Carry the One  I’ve continued to think about the book, trying to decide why I liked it so much. 

I believe it’s because it provided me with an aesthetic experience, which is not true of every novel I read, by any means.  I felt there was real artistry in it.  The prose was so keenly alert, sophisticated, and sharp, with many sentences that made me want to read them aloud to someone.  Such as these:  “Nick turned the key in the ignition, made a U-turn and headed into town.  He stopped at a no-name … Read More

Carry the One is a wonderful novel. 

I’ve tried to think what made the book so compelling to me that I felt a sense of loss when I came to the end.  It also gave me a bad case of writer’s envy.  I really, seriously wish I had written Carry the One.  I want to write like Carol Anshaw.

The novel doesn’t have much of a plot, which I considered a strength. Its terms are different.  It starts when several of the characters as young adults are involved in a car accident in which a young girl is … Read More

In an essay called “What is Real is Imagined” in the July 15, 2012 The New York Times, Colm Tóibín describes being back in the remote place on the Coast of Ireland which his family visited in the summers until he was twelve.  When he passes the house where his family once stayed, it’s his parents’ bedroom he sees in his memory with its iron bed and the cement floor, and the clover he smells is the same as it was in 1967.  Or, as he amends, because he is trying to dream that world of 1967 into … Read More

When Jeff and I were in Palo Alto on a recent trip, I wanted to visit the Creative Writing Department again, where I had been a Stegner Fellow and taught creative writing for three years back in the early 70s.  Alas, it had moved, which didn’t seem right, but only around to the front of the quad facing Palm Avenue, rather than being housed in the inner quad.  At least it was still in one of the old, original sandstone buildings.

Inside we saw a small sign announcing that there would be a colloquium with Martin Amis at 11:00 that … Read More

If you’re following this blog with any regularity, I’m sure you’re relieved that I’m off my JCO’s A Widow’s Story bender.  I’m “recovering.”  Like they say, one day at a time…

I just had a fun weekend in Madison, which I had never been to.  It is a cool, hip, funky, populist town where everyone looks cool, hip and funky.  On Williamson Street where we were staying, I saw a guy sweeping his sidewalk whose hair was pretty much like a large, flattened broom head sticking straight up on top of his skull, held upright by some spackling substance. Very … Read More

In my last post, I talked about how there are a million books out there to read (and listed some places to read reviews of them).  Then I got myself in trouble by saying I wanted to give more thought to how and why I choose certain books and that I would report back.  Now I feel obliged to report back, not that I think anyone is holding his or her breath.  Turns out I don’t know why I pick books, beyond certain X factors that seem to vary from book to book.  It’s usually a combination of things that … Read More