Category Archives: Reviews

How then must we live, reader, and who do you love?

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Ellen Akins

Update: Martin Amis, in an interview with Emma Brockes in The Guardian on September 16, 1917:  Now in their temporary residence, work continues. Even here, Amis notices he has mellowed somewhat. He used to be a terrible purist about the … Continue reading →

Posted in All, Blog, Reading Notes, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on How then must we live, reader, and who do you love?

Ethan Canin, A Doubter’s Almanac

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Ellen Akins

A Doubter’s Almanac by Ethan Canin (who’s very good, and, as Elaine May, doing her nagging mother routine, would say, that man is a DOCTOR), which I reviewed for the Minneapolis Star Tribune prompted a few further thoughts about what privileged knowledge means … Continue reading →

Posted in All, Blog, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Ethan Canin, A Doubter’s Almanac

Jane Smiley’s The Hundred Year Trilogy, concluded

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Ellen Akins

Golden Age completes Jane Smiley’s Last Hundred Years trilogy (though it won’t really be the last 100 years until 2020, when things promise to be pretty bleak). I reviewed this last volume for the Minneapolis Star Tribune–as I did the 1st 2 volumes … Continue reading →

Posted in All, Blog, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Jane Smiley’s The Hundred Year Trilogy, concluded

“We are risen apes, not fallen angels”: On being human, humane, & at home in the world.

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Ellen Akins

Here’s a review of another odd & lovely, allegory-inflected novel from (whose Beatrice & Virgil I also reviewed for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “The High Mountains of Portugal” is Ron Charles’s pick of the month at the Washington Post.

Posted in All, Blog, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on “We are risen apes, not fallen angels”: On being human, humane, & at home in the world.

Women & Other Animals, Including Mothers & Daughters, Bonnie Jo Campbell

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Ellen Akins

When I was doing a visiting semester (too many years ago to count) at Western Michigan University, Jaimy Gordon (who teaches at WMU) asked me to review Bonnie Jo Campbell’s first book of short stories, Women and Other Animals, for … Continue reading →

Posted in All, Blog, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Women & Other Animals, Including Mothers & Daughters, Bonnie Jo Campbell