Archive for July, 2007



The led: Ian Patterson’s Guernica and Total War

Below Valerie Trueblood, author most recently of the novel Seven Loves, praises Ian Patterson’s Guernica and Total War, an indictment and examination of war from the skies, just out from Harvard University Press last month.   I wonder why in this country we don’t hear the word “wartime.” Here we are in year five of one war and year six . . .

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Illustrations for unwritten fairy tales

Kendra Binney’s paintings — which combine malice and melodrama with storybook cuteness — are like illustrations for fairy tales not yet written. Her originals run up to £425 at galleries, apparently, but I blundered upon her work last month at Etsy. There you can pick up small prints (mounted on birch wood and covered with clear plastic resin) for $20. . . .

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On visiting William Faulkner’s Rowan Oak

It must have been these rows of tall trees — a required feature of any Rowan Oak photo — that led me to believe Faulkner’s house was a massive and imposing structure. Maybe because I was expecting something so grand, the visit was unexpectedly intimate. The house hasn’t changed much since the Nobel Laureate’s death in 1962 (except that it’s . . .

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