Yearly Archives: 2013

Some (Old) Guys: J. M. Coetzee, David Grene

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Ellen Akins

 Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man? When David Grene died, at 89, in 2002, Douglas Martin said of him, in the New York Times, that his “translations of ancient Greek spoke with such clarity that the writer … Continue reading →

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Further Adventures in Reviewing: Margaret Atwood, part 1

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Ellen Akins

When, on reading Margaret Atwood’s new post-apocalyptic dystopian novel for review, I came upon a section called “Girl Stuff,” I knew love.  That a writer who’s so serious, and so seriously sees where we’re going–witness A Handmaid’s Tale and this … Continue reading →

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Further Adventures in Reviewing: Jean Thompson

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Ellen Akins

On Reviewing Jean Thompson’s The Humanity Project I’d begun reading Jean Thompson’s novel, The Humanity Project, for review and at first found the prose so plain that I thought I’d be bored.  Soon I found the book neither plain nor … Continue reading →

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Margaret Atwood’s bad reputation

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Ellen Akins

For a review, reading the advance reader’s copy of Margaret Atwood’s new book, MaddAddam, the last in her futuristic dystopian trilogy, after Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood (which I reviewed here), I recalled my first Atwood … Continue reading →

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On Rules

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Ellen Akins

Today on NPR (“Weekend Edition Sunday“) linguist Arika Okrent was talking about changes in English.  When the host said she could hear her 4th grade English teacher saying such-and-such, Okrent remarked that most of what we think of as rules … Continue reading →

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