Monthly Archives: February 2011

Collective Bargaining in Butte Montana

Posted on February 28, 2011 by

Montanans like to tell stories; over the years, I’ve heard and read a quite a few good ones. One of the best that I have read lately is Ivan Doig’s Work Song, a comic-serious novel set in the historic mining … Continue reading →

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Historians Foil Dracula Plot

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

If your father told you Dracula stories when you were young it might set your life on an unusual path. Elizabeth Kostova’s introductory novel, The Historians, is based on Dracula stories heard in her youth and on her meticulous research … Continue reading →

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Chile Discovers an Unlikely Detective

Posted on February 22, 2011 by

Chile, the birthplace of Nobel poet Pablo Neruda and setting for Chilean novelist Isabel Allende’s famous novel The House of the Spirits, Casa de los espiritus, is also home to the detective fiction of Roberto Ampuero, who created the unlikely … Continue reading →

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Mrs Dalloway on a fine June Day

Posted on February 21, 2011 by

The Hours by Michael Cunningham opens with a moving and poignant dramatization of the final hours of author Virginia Wolf, who committed suicide in 1941 on the eve of World War II. Cunningham then introduces his principal character Clarissa Vaughn, … Continue reading →

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Crooked letters in Rural Mississippi

Posted on February 15, 2011 by

A moody white man, Carl Ott, who owns and operates a roadside automobile repair shop outside the fictitious rural town of Chabot, Mississippi, gets his black maid pregnant and shuttles her off to Chicago. That could be the end of … Continue reading →

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Sergeant Bevilacqua, Spanish Detective

Posted on February 12, 2011 by

This novel is a tale of two beautiful women, one in her 20s the other almost twice that age—the young woman was murdered and the other accused of the crime. Onto the scene comes the detective team of sergeant Vila … Continue reading →

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Bloomsday Tribute to Judge Woolsley

Posted on February 9, 2011 by

The first week of February, Irish throughout the world celebrate the birthday of their famous ex-patriot James Joyce—what better way for me to celebrate than to pickup my worn copy of Ulysses and read a few passages. I did that, … Continue reading →

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