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Tag: sexuality

Review: Alissa Nutting’s “Tampa”

This fiendish novel dug its claws into me and didn’t let go until the very last page. Alissa Nutting’s Tampa is rich in imagery and metaphor, teeming with keen observations about the dark sides of American culture, and saturated in seduction. It’s a book that would have overflowed with its own verve if Nutting hadn’t […]

Book Review: James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

I’ve never been partial to James Joyce, but consider it part of my due diligence as a committed reader to get to know him. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, widely considered his most accessible work, seemed like a good place to start. Joyce wields words carefully, opening the novel with stripped […]

Book Review: Julio Cortázar’s “Hopscotch”

In this novel’s table of instructions, Julio Cortázar states that Hopscotch “consists of many books, but two books above all.”  The reader is given a choice: read the book in normal fashion and stop at the end of Chapter 56 (in which case a large portion of the book will remain unread), or jump between […]