Category Archives: Fiction

Earthsea — Dragons and Wizards

Posted on August 10, 2020 by carto

Sheltering at home gives me extra time for reading— I read in English some books I first read while studying Spanish: 100 Years of Solitude, Love in the time of Cholera, Death in the Andes, etc.  Now, I’m turning to … Continue reading →

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Donna Tartt — The Goldfinch Unchained

Posted on January 10, 2015 by carto

The Goldfinch is a very small oil painting of a finch chained to its perch that is on display in a museum in the Netherlands. It was painted 300 years ago by a student of Rembrandt and is very famous. … Continue reading →

Posted in eBook, Fiction | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Colombian Storyteller, García Márquez, is dead at 87

Posted on April 17, 2014 by carto

Gabriel García Márquez is dead at 87; he is survived by his stories, and his many readers. In his autobiography García Márquez told this story of a surprise visit by his mother: My mother asked me to go with her … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Memoir, Spanish, Translation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Zero To Hero — Donna Tartt spins a murder tale in Vermont

Posted on January 3, 2014 by carto

Murdered—Bunny is dead. He’s lying there at the foot of Mt. Cataract buried by a fateful April snow: “He’d been dead for ten days before they found him, you know. It was one of the biggest manhunts in Vermont history— … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime novel, Fiction, Mystery, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Jonah — Biblical Story Made Modern

Posted on December 17, 2013 by carto

Today, the gleaming towers of Las Vegas have eclipsed the great American desert of southern Nevada. Author Joshua Max Feldman remembers an older, more primitive time in the epigraph of his novel The Book of Jonah: —and Jonah saw in … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Doris Lessing: Reluctant Feminist

Posted on November 19, 2013 by carto

Posted on the web: “Goodbye to Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook wouldn’t be the same without you.” The posting by the Golden Notebook bookstore in Woodstock included a link to the obituary published by the N.Y. Times: Doris Lessing, the … Continue reading →

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Rowling– A Celebrity Falls In London’s Mayfair

Posted on September 9, 2013 by carto

It was a dark and stormy night (for it is in London that our scene lies)— the supermodel Lula Landry lies dead on the sidewalk below the balcony of her luxurious Mayfair apartment: Photographers stood massed behind barriers patrolled by … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime novel, Fiction, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Elmore Leonard– The Old West of Lawmen and Outlaws

Posted on August 20, 2013 by carto

Elmore Leonard wrote about the old west–Arizona Territory, 1860. His early short stories were about the Apache, cowboys, sheriff deputies, stage-coach drivers and, of course, gun-toting outlaws. In 1953, Leonard was working as an advertising copywriter when he published “Three-Ten … Continue reading →

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China Girl on an Italian Motorcycle

Posted on March 16, 2013 by carto

The opening scene of The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner takes place near the Isonzo River in northern Italy during the First World War, 1917. An Italian motorcyclist called Valera is fighting an anonymous German trooper hand-to-hand after the cyclist stopped … Continue reading →

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Chess — A Woman In A Man’s World

Posted on September 24, 2012 by carto

American Chess Grandmasters Susan Polgar and Gata Kamsky in tournament play. Two Grandmasters plan their moves as the battle for domination of the chessboard begins—Polgar has played her queen pawn two squares and Kamsky echoed her move. If Polgar moves … Continue reading →

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