Tag Archives: American Literature

Partners — Brexit 1776, Hamilton (the musical)

Posted on June 25, 2016 by carto

A slow recovery from pneumonia is more pleasant if you take a good book from your library and play some music — I’ve been listening to Hamilton (the original cast recording) and reading along in Hamilton—The Revolution. Two hours of glorious, … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Music, Theater | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Admiration — Libraries and Antiquarians

Posted on May 1, 2016 by carto

Admiration: I like a big sprawling library with open stacks, and Green Library is one of my favorites. Thousands and thousands of books on shelves to pull out and browse. There is a light on in the stacks; maybe someone is browsing. … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Poetry, Translation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

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

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

Judy Blunt–Leaving Home, Braking Clean

Posted on November 4, 2013 by carto

Breaking clean is never easy. Memoirist and poet Judy Blunt described it this way: I left Phillips County with a new divorce and an old car, with three scared kids and some clothes piled in back. We followed the sun … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a 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 →

Posted in Fiction, Movie | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

John Irving—Twisted River, A Writer Drifts Through Life

Posted on June 20, 2012 by carto

A guardian angel looks down on Iowa. A scene from John Irving’s novel Last Night in Twisted River takes place on a small pig farm not far from Iowa City. A pig was roasting in a makeshift barbeque pit not … Continue reading →

Posted in eBook, Fiction, Memoir | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Toni Morrison— Home, A Memorial to Civil Rights and The Korean War

Posted on May 28, 2012 by carto

Frank Money’s home is in rural Georgia, a small town just South of Atlanta. Home is the new novel by Nobel and Pulitzer winner Toni Morrison that tells Frank’s story. As the novel begins, Frank is speaking to the author … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Poetry | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment