Category Archives: fiction

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin

I wonder what it would have been like to read Lucia Berlin in the 1970’s, as my family was driving through the western United States on various extended vacations — two parents and five kids stuffed into a green Buick … Continue reading

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Look At Me by Anita Brookner

Brookner’s precise and darkly imaginative second novel explores, with an unstinting, dispassionate, and bone-scraping precision, the paradoxical and painful dichotomy between seeing and being seen. Fanny Hinton, a handsome and sober young woman of means living alone with the aging … Continue reading

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The Door by Magda Szabó

What is behind the door? Do not come to this book expecting to find easy answers to any of your tired questions about relationships, faith, poverty, love, or the meaning of life. Check your preconceptions at the door. This is the … Continue reading

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The Unchangeable Spots of the Leopard

This books was a nice surprise. Beautifully written, energetic, intelligent, humane, thoughtful. I’m in a good mood so I’m not going to say anything bad… But if I were going to say something critical, I would only mention that the author’s/narrator’s … Continue reading

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Between My Father and the King: New and Uncollected Stories

A new collection of Janet Frame stories, many of them previously unpublished, has been released by Counterpoint. Janet Frame, one of New Zealand’s most distinguished writers, is one of my favorite authors. Resources New York Times Book Review by By ALISON McCULLOCH … Continue reading

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