Summary: The Master and Margarita is a work of magical realism by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. The story takes place in Moscow during a brief but tumultuous visit from Satan and a retinue of his followers, who kick off all kinds of macabre mischief upon their arrival. Caught up in the chaos are the eponymous Master […]
Summary: William K. Rawlins’s The Compass of Friendship is an excellent follow-up to Friendship Matters. Rawlins utilizes the same dialectical framework from his first book but expands his research on friendship into new territory. The opening chapters lay out Rawlins’s general theories of friendship, and the latter chapters examine specific types of friendships such as cross-sex, cross-race, […]
Summary: Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead is a superb contribution to the American literary tradition. The book is narrated by John Ames, a preacher from the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa. It’s the late 1950s, and Ames is approaching the end of his life. Before giving up the ghost, he decides to write a missive to his young son […]
Summary: N.K. Jemisin’s The Obelisk Gate is the middle book in her Broken Earth trilogy. Jemisin invites us deeper into the Stillness, continuing the story of Essun and some familiar supporting characters from the first novel (see my review of The Fifth Season for an overview). In The Obelisk Gate, we learn more about the history of the Stillness, including the mythology of […]
My Dear and Honoured Rilke, I have received your letters We all did–– Joyce’s “general postoffice of human life” was Not too late After all Your letters, first posted Then unposted–– Wash us clean across the generations Bring us the quiet and careful wisdom You sought in Solitude Criticism won’t bring us near to art […]
I. Grabbing the Wheel It’s like, we’ve been in a car with a brick on the gas pedal and no one at the wheel, careening down the road, running over people and crashing into things. We’re still in the car. We can’t get out of the car. But someone could at least grab the […]
Summary: Warren Farrell and John Gray’s The Boy Crisis examines how and why boys and men are struggling to survive and thrive in modern life, and seeks to provide a preliminary blueprint for how to reverse this trend. In Part One, Farrell lays out the statistical evidence for the problem, demonstrating how boys and men are failing […]
Summary: Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides is the story of the Wingos, a family from South Carolina’s Lowcountry. The main characters are three siblings who are born at the beginning of the American postwar period: Tom and Savannah (twins), and their older brother Luke. Tom, our narrator, has spent most of his adult life ignoring the […]
Summary: bell hook’s The Will to Change is a work of feminist philosophy that seeks to articulate and subvert the patriarchal constraints that make it difficult for men to give and receive love. “Masses of men have not even begun to look at the ways that patriarchy keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their […]
Summary: Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land is a stunning and elegant work of modern fiction. Taking inspiration from an ancient novel by Antonius Diogenes that survives merely as “a few papyrus fragments” and a “ninth-century plot summary” (Author’s Note), Doerr weaves together three narrative arcs from different eras in humanity’s past, present, and future. One takes place during […]