Category Archives: Reviews

Crime & Review

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Thomas

Read Michael Dirda’s review of a wonderful new condensed version of perhaps the best literary biography of the great Fyodor Dostoevsky ever, and experience, Mystic Terror Revisited.

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On the Origin of Stories

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Thomas

You can’t help but get as excited as Christine when you read her review of Brian Boyd’s great new book. On the Origin of Stories by Christine Boyko-Head “Evolution may help explain copulation and even cooperation, but can it account … Continue reading →

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A Streetcar Named Despair

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Thomas

Read this review of a really fascinating new book, Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder That Rocked New Orleans, by Ethan Brown. Sounds like a grim movie to be made.

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Review of From the Scenic Outlook the Battlefield Churns Beautifully

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Thomas

Below is a review I wrote back in 2003 and had forgotten about. It appeared in Main Street Rag (Winter, 2003) and I just discovered it in an archive on their current MSR Reading Series site. I didn’t have a … Continue reading →

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Batshit Insanely Good Review

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Thomas

Esquire Reads Dean Koontz and David Baldacci And more from America’s new literary canon of popular but insipid fiction, so you don’t have to. Here’s what our book critic learned before throwing up a little in his mouth. By Benjamin … Continue reading →

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Uncovering a Hiding Man

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Thomas

This weekend I finished reading Hiding Man, Tracy Daugherty’s fantastic new biography of postmodernist Donald Barthelme. Perfect thing to read this past cold, melancholy, drizzled week. The Barthelmes — a most talented family — seem to exist under a slight … Continue reading →

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The Evolution of Japanese Mysteries

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Thomas

How Japanese mysteries evolved from imitation to adaptation Tracing the disordered steps from Edgar Allan Poe to Edogawa Rampo By MARK SCHREIBER PURLOINED LETTERS: Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature, 1868-1937, by Mark Silver. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008, … Continue reading →

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