Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life is a superlative novel in every respect. It is also the most emotionally challenging book I’ve ever read. Even after being forewarned by a friend, I was still completely unprepared for the onslaught of sensations and reactions this story elicited from me. Reading it was like being caught in a […]
Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven is a stirring, nearly-flawless novel that breathes new life into the genre of post-apocalyptic fiction. When a hyper-aggressive strain of the flu kills more than 99 percent of the world’s population, Earth’s few survivors must decide how to live in a crumbling world. It’s a typical setup for this […]
Very few philosophical novels hold universal appeal, and this one doesn’t break the mold. I truly enjoyed Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, but wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone. The story follows two women living in close proximity: Renée, the middle-aged concierge of a French apartment building, and Paloma, the precocious and suicidal […]
“Every time, it’s a miracle. Here are all these people, full of heartache and hatred or desire, and we all have our troubles and the school year is filled with vulgarity and triviality and consequence, and there are all these teachers and kids of every shape and size, and there’s this life we’re struggling through […]
“We mustn’t forget old people with their rotten bodies, old people who are so close to death, something that young people don’t want to think about (so it is to retirement homes that they entrust the care of accompanying their parents to the threshold, with no fuss or bother). And where’s the joy in these […]
“Apparently, now and again adults take the time to sit down and contemplate what a disaster their life is. They complain without understanding and, like flies constantly banging against the same old windowpane, they buzz around, suffer, waste away, get depressed then wonder how they got caught up in this spiral that is taking them […]
We live in a world shaped by scientific principles, but our understanding of those principles is always less than perfect. As technology and scientific inquiry become ever more embedded in our social and professional lives, it’s important not only to ensure exposure to reliable information, but also to ask how this trend affects the quality […]
A whole class of first-years could have graduated from Hogwarts since 2007, when J.K. Rowling shocked the world by concluding the Harry Potter series with a book that delighted the vast majority of her rabid fans. It’s still a wonder she pulled it off, given the pressure she must have felt to avoid being tarred […]
“What is it about an infant’s crying that makes it so powerful, able to break down the order you depend on, inside and outside of yourself? It is like a storm––insistent, theatrical, yet in a way pure and uncontrived. It is reproachful rather than supplicating––it comes out of a rage that can’t be dealt with, […]
I already wish I could get back at least a portion of the many hours I spent wading through this novel, so I’m not going to waste much time reviewing it. Despite containing some moments of keen intellectual insight and a handful of endearing events and characters, John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany is […]