Category Archives: Fiction
Thane Rosenbaum Is Back
The other week, as I was reading Auslander’s Hope: A Tragedy and posted my comments on this blog, a good friend of mine jokingly commented on Facebook, “Does it feel strange to read a book that doesn’t have pictures in it?” (I … Continue reading
Without Feathers
I’ve just finished reading Shalom Auslander’s first novel, Hope: A Tragedy. I liked this book a lot, especially Auslander’s unique sense of humor, which is in many ways a no-holds-barred attempt to find humor regardless of any “sacred” context. The context, … Continue reading
Abandon All Hope
Last month I began Shalom Auslander’s new novel, Hope: A Tragedy. However, I put the book aside for a few weeks and then forgot what I had read. So this weekend I started the novel over, and I’m glad I … Continue reading
Goodbye, Philip Roth
It’s been awhile since I last blogged, and this is primarily due to laziness. But in the interim, I have been reading quite a bit, and over the next several days I hope to catch up a bit with things. … Continue reading
Russian Émigré Short-Story Cycles
As I have mentioned in a couple of previous posts, I’m in the process of working on an essay concerning examples of the short-story cycle in recent Jewish Russian émigré narrative. I’ve done a bit of work on the short-story cycle … Continue reading
A Little of This, a Little of That
My reading has been varied these past several weeks…then again, that’s nothing new. However, in some ways I’ve slowed down a bit, not reading as much as I usually do or as I would like. And also as usual, I’ve … Continue reading
Back to the Russians
Last year I began work on an essay regarding recent Jewish Russian émigré writing, focusing specifically on the short-story cycle form. I was particularly interested in Ellen Litman’s The Last Chicken in America and David Bezmozgis’s Natasha and Other Stories, since both … Continue reading
Further Thoughts on Xaime
As I’ve mentioned in this blog previously, I’m in the process of working on an essay centered around Jaime Hernandez’s post-1996 comics–those that were published after the end of the first Love & Rockets series–and the way he deals with issues … Continue reading
Finally…World and Town
Well, I finally finished reading Gish Jen’s World and Town. I’m glad I stuck it out and completed the novel. It wasn’t that bad, and my experiences with it in the last half were more positive than in the first. … Continue reading
Wig Wam Bam Bam
Right now I’m in the middle of rereading almost all of Jaime Hernandez’s work, which is a formidable task given his profuse and impressive output. I’ll write more about that experience later, but for now, I thought I’d briefly note … Continue reading