Irene Nemirovsky is not someone whose works I see being reviewed much in the blogosphere–at least not in the very small corner of it that I inhabit–and I can’t understand why. For a perfect combination of stylistic elegance and psychological acuity distilled down to their essences (no door-stoppers here) I can’t think of her equal. … Continue reading »
We are all of us better when she is near us
I recently read Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford and both adored it and was bemused by it. I don’t quite know what I think Gaskell was doing with this book–or, even, what kind of book it is, in terms of basic genre distinctions. I’m pretty sure it’s fantasy of some sort though. Cranford is a series of … Continue reading »
Sammich!
Back in the late 80s or early 90s, I began ironically referring to sandwiches as “sammiches.” It seemed to me that “sandwich” was entirely too posh and tightly laced a word for what I meant and wanted from meals comprising two or more pieces of bread and delicious fillings of various sorts. A really good … Continue reading »
Ink and paper
I received a real hand-written letter in the mail today! A few weeks ago, I wrote about letters being what I miss most now that we live in the post-handwriting age. Stefanie over at So Many Books promised to send me a letter if I would send one back…well, hers arrived just a few minutes … Continue reading »
Stupid shallow people being awful to one another
When I picked up Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust, I did so because I knew the writing would be satisfying even if the content might ultimately be forgettable. I was not wrong–about the writing. As always, the writing is lovely and perfect and clean and compelling. I was wrong about the content, however, but … Continue reading »
Brain/Food: an entirely sugar-free post
Sarah Sweet is, in spite of her potty-mouth, a gentlewoman; she is a scholar. She loves cats, a fact which all by itself proves my preceding two claims. On the interwebs, she is known as The Catastrophizer. She is also my bestie. The following is an incomplete but representative list of the things she’s given … Continue reading »
Hard to place within any straightforward phrenological system
There was a writer named Nikolai Leskov (1831-95)–have you heard of him? It’s possible, perhaps even likely, you haven’t. According to editor David McDuff, even though Leskov was “after Gogol, the most quintessentially Russian of writers” (8), he was also one of the least popular. Nineteenth-century Russian literary circles, it seems, weren’t notably inclusive of … Continue reading »
Chickpea love
I’ve written here before about my uninspiring beginnings as a food-eater. Given that I was unable to pick garlic out of a lineup up until my 24th year on this beautiful earth, it shouldn’t surprise you at all to learn that chickpeas weren’t in my culinary lexicon either. I believe my husband introduced me to … Continue reading »
