Tag Archives: Minneapolis Star Tribune

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 →

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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 →

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The Road Back to Sweetgrass, Linda LeGarde Grover

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Ellen Akins

Linda LeGarde Grover’s new book, The Road Back to Sweetgrass, reviewed for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, builds upon the characters and fictional Ojibwe reservation, Mozhay Point, that featured in her previous book of stories, The Dance Boots, which I also … Continue reading →

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Zyzak, The Ballad of Barnabas Pierkiel

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Ellen Akins

This was a tricky review to write, because the book was a sort that doesn’t appeal to me personally but is clearly a good book of its sort (I asked myself:  Would my husband like this?  And the answer was … Continue reading →

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Matthew Olshan, The Marshlands, a review

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Ellen Akins

My review of a hauntingly grim and beautiful book, in the tradition of J. M. Coetzee, that reflects the tragic politics of our world through the prism of a story of fairytale-like specificity and universality.

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