In his disturbingly perceptive poem, “Musée des Beaux Arts,” W.H. Auden delineated the perpetual disconnect that exists between the comfortable, workaday world and the monumental suffering that’s always going on at its margins. He... Read More

A book that foregrounds the importance of literature and language, Barnardo Atxaga’s "Obabakoak" is an achievement. Its methods are varied, and much is bound by its spine—wit, fiction, autobiography, metafiction, explication,... Read More

"Things Seen" is a slender volume of essays, so slim for a book-length work that it might be mistaken for, at a first glance, a novella or a poet’s chapbook. Though brief, the French writer Annie Ernaux’s most recent book weighs in,... Read More

Writers’ journals have historically provided unique glimpses into historical events, the creative process, and personal joys and turmoils. With the work left by Ralph Waldo Emerson—published by editor Lawrence Rosenwald in two... Read More

Writers’ journals have historically provided unique glimpses into historical events, the creative process, and personal joys and turmoils. With the work left by Ralph Waldo Emerson—published by editor Lawrence Rosenwald in two... Read More

Flutter the pages of Patrick Madden’s "Quotidiana", and entering it becomes irresistible. A photo of the author placed next to one of Jeffrey Dahmer might ignite the inquisitive spirit—or, if not that aspect of the book, then... Read More

Like a cold intoxicating hurricane slush on a hot summer day one can down Wilder’s "Murder Etouffee" in one sitting with all the exuberance of a tourist thirsty for the excitement of “Nawlins.” Oftentimes though a reader may devour... Read More

“The cloud of midlife unknowing,” Hammond writes, “brings sublime compensation in the freedom to be oneself. This is why it is so important to know who that self really is. Aging grants us license for just the sort of goofiness and... Read More