While a Kirkus Review item on Prue Shaw's Dante book praises Shaw for showing us the genius of Dante's work, there's something else I'd like to mention -- more of an aside than anything else -- that is just as worthy as her assessment of that mighty poem. The poet's biography, embedded in the lines. … Continue reading P.S. Dante’s salty bread
Category: Reading
Second only to Paris … 700 years ago, that is
Well, we wouldn't have Shakespeare's sonnets if plague hadn't closed all the London theaters; we wouldn't have Henry James' novels (a mixed blessing) if he'd struck gold as a playwright; and we definitely wouldn't have Dante's "Comedy" if the poet hadn't been driven out of Florence. In other words, misfortune's often been the handmaiden to … Continue reading Second only to Paris … 700 years ago, that is
Return of a Roth … necessary reading … rest, Peter
Of the Roth triumvirate (Philip, Joseph, and Henry), Henry usually gets overshadowed by the other two. After all, how can a maker of bildungsroman tales compete with portraits of a failing empire or the romantic uses of a piece of liver? Well, the work of Henry Roth -- lyric chronicler of childhood in Call It Sleep -- … Continue reading Return of a Roth … necessary reading … rest, Peter
Nick Owchar 
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