novel Archive

  • His alter-ego Zuckerman, unconsciously frightened of success and of failure, frightened of being admired and also despised, frightened of being frightened, he unconsciously suppressed his talent, frightened of what it might do next. On the passing of Philip Roth, we look into his often black comic chronicles of an imagined life, his taking down and reshaping the meaning of 'Jewish American', and his play at historic re-creating the zeitgeist within the form of the novel.

    Mild Satire, Outrage and Hostility, with Philip Roth

    Posted on June 2, 2018 | No Comments
    His alter-ego Zuckerman, unconsciously frightened of success and of failure, frightened of being admired and also despised, frightened of being frightened, he unconsciously suppressed his talent, frightened of what it might do next. On the passing of Philip Roth, we look into his often black comic chronicles of an imagined life, his taking down and reshaping the meaning of 'Jewish American', and his play at historic re-creating the zeitgeist within the form of the novel.

    Continue Reading...

  • A documentary on Japanese literary postmodernist Haruki Murakami, as well as a folktale from his novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage." As the Guardian puts it: "Full of ambiguity and sex – all Murakami's signature flourishes are here."

    The Ambiguous Colors of Haruki Murakami

    Posted on March 14, 2016 | No Comments
    A documentary on Japanese literary postmodernist Haruki Murakami, as well as a folktale from his novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage." As the Guardian puts it: "Full of ambiguity and sex – all Murakami's signature flourishes are here."

    Continue Reading...

  • Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece "Under the Volcano," about the fervid last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico, is set to the drumbeat of coming internal and external conflict. Autobiographical and reflective of the expatriated trust-funder in a futile search for an artistic home, the perpetually inebriated master got lost along the road toward his own abyss, and died under suspicious circumstances, out-of-print.

    Death By Misadventure: Malcolm Lowry’s Gin-Sopped Volcano

    Posted on October 22, 2015 | 1 Comment
    Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece "Under the Volcano," about the fervid last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico, is set to the drumbeat of coming internal and external conflict. Autobiographical and reflective of the expatriated trust-funder in a futile search for an artistic home, the perpetually inebriated master got lost along the road toward his own abyss, and died under suspicious circumstances, out-of-print.

    Continue Reading...

  • Matthew Pallamary's acclaimed novel "Land Without Evil," recently performed as an aerial acrobatic stage show, narrates the true story of a young shaman of the Guaraní people of South America facing European conquest and conversion to Catholicism in the 1700s.

    Matt Pallamary: Guaraní Shaman’s Quest for “Land Without Evil”

    Posted on December 17, 2012 | 3 Comments
    Matthew Pallamary's acclaimed novel "Land Without Evil," recently performed as an aerial acrobatic stage show, narrates the true story of a young shaman of the Guaraní people of South America facing European conquest and conversion to Catholicism in the 1700s.

    Continue Reading...

  • Burroughs wanted to free people from the slavery of addiction, whether to heroin or money or sex. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" was his shorthand for the diseased saturnalia of American affluence. From his earliest writings Burroughs foresaw a time when human beings, drenched in orgasmic "freedom," would be reduced to their bodies, their minds completely manipulated by advertising and mass media.

    William S. Burroughs – Commissioner of Literary Addictions

    Posted on June 21, 2012 | 6 Comments
    Burroughs wanted to free people from the slavery of addiction, whether to heroin or money or sex. "The Garden of Earthly Delights" was his shorthand for the diseased saturnalia of American affluence. From his earliest writings Burroughs foresaw a time when human beings, drenched in orgasmic "freedom," would be reduced to their bodies, their minds completely manipulated by advertising and mass media.

    Continue Reading...

  • "Monte Schulz's *The Big Town* exposes decadence, wealth and consumption in Jazz Age America as spiritual myopia -- where desperate, haunting characters hinge their lives on impossible dreams. This lyrical, gripping novel is as close to 1920s America as it gets, and penned with such frightening realism that the chaos of a bygone era erupts from its pages." - Simon Van Booy

    Monte Schulz: Dreaming Jazz America in “The Big Town”

    Posted on April 2, 2012 | 1 Comment
    "Monte Schulz's *The Big Town* exposes decadence, wealth and consumption in Jazz Age America as spiritual myopia -- where desperate, haunting characters hinge their lives on impossible dreams. This lyrical, gripping novel is as close to 1920s America as it gets, and penned with such frightening realism that the chaos of a bygone era erupts from its pages." - Simon Van Booy

    Continue Reading...