Darryl Pinckney on Baldwin’s Cross of Redemption
James Baldwin, “like Emerson, renounced the pulpit—he had been a fiery boy preacher in Harlem—and readers have found in the writings of each the atmosphere of church.”
James Baldwin, “like Emerson, renounced the pulpit—he had been a fiery boy preacher in Harlem—and readers have found in the writings of each the atmosphere of church.”
My mystification that Muriel Spark isn’t more widely read has continued to grow, but last week her editor, New Directions publisher Barbara Epler, offered a theory in email that echoes what Howard Jacobson has said about the devaluation of comedy in literature. “The fact that she is so unbelievably and witchily entertaining,” Epler argues, “has kept her from her full . . .
Jessa, on our often-conflicting tastes: “one of us will be ecstatic about a book, and the other politely says, ‘Yeah, I didn’t read that one.’” See also. Takeaway: read Somerset Maugham.
I took a hiatus from my reviewing hiatus to write about Adam Levin’s The Instructions for B&N Review. The book runs a little over a thousand pages and, by the end, I would gladly have signed on for another thousand. Here’s an excerpt: Adam Levin’s dark, funny, and deeply provocative first novel, The Instructions, comprises the scriptures of one Gurion . . .