Intermezzo by Sally Rooney is a noteworthy piece of fiction. If you liked Rooney’s Normal People, you’ll enjoy being drawn into this newest book. The narrative line is: two brothers, both grieving the recent death of their father, are alienated from each other and, we learn, from themselves. Peter, age 32, is a barrister known …
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Yes, we can still give thanks!
My stuffing is made. If the weather permits, we'll be together with family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Friends and acquaintances keep reaching out, asking "what are we going to do?" They're not referring to how best to carve the turkey, which football games to watch, or whether to tune in to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day …
Trump’s Shock-and-Awe Cabinet Nominees – Promises kept?
Nebraska Senator Roman Hruska once defended Richard Nixon’s ultimately failed nomination of G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court by stating, "Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?” Some of those whom Donald Trump has named for …
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Fiction to distract from post-election angst
Here are two novels in which key characters are named Gabe. The similarity ends there. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is a psychological thriller that plumbs the depth of the human psyche. The simplest narrative – a woman is convicted of murdering her husband, Gabriel Berenson. She becomes mute, is sent for years to …
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Margin of error won. We lost. A first look.
This time the pollsters were right. They had held all along that the election outcome was within the margin of error. It could go either way. And so it did. But in the wrong direction. Donald J. Trump won on a campaign of lies and grievances, fear and loathing. We’re a deeply divided nation, preferring …
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Two more novels where small towns are defining
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is a nicely woven mystery set in rural East Texas. Two murders occur in just a matter of days in a tiny town called Lark. Are the two crimes related? That’s just one of the questions being explored by principal character Darren Matthews, an African-American who dropped out of law …
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Don’t wanna go back? Our clocks will
Kamala Harris pledges, "We won't go back." Tonight, however, we all will. At 2 a.m. tomorrow morning we set the clocks back an hour. Sure, it means an extra hour of sleep, but, for many of us, this is a real downer. Except for sunshine states like Arizona and Hawaii, it will be black as …
Fiction to escape doom-scrolling election coverage
The Hunter by Tana French is a murder mystery set in the hardworking village of Ardnakelty in Ireland during an abnormally dry, searingly hot summer, oppressive to humans and animals alike. Nerves are on edge. The only relief for the farmers and shopkeepers is gathering for a pint or more at the local pub, to …
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Bezos’ business interests trump WaPo journalism
Hiding out from election coverage isn't working all that well for me. Half my recent blogs have been non-political book reviews, but that hasn't diluted the tension leading up to November 5th. Now I feel compelled to express my outrage and disappointment at how once-leading American newspapers have been too fearful of Donald Trump to …
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Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction lays bare a world of pain
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by journalist Nathan Thrall won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction this year. The core of the narrative is simple: in 2012 a rickety school bus carrying kindergardeners on a field trip is upended by a tractor trailer in the outskirts of Jerusalem …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 