Two novels that arrived in the mail made me think, almost instantly, of the oddest pairing: Mark Haddon's Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Carolyn Parkhurst's Dogs of Babel. To be honest, it's not the canine connection that made me pair these two books. It's something else: the fact that both freshen the … Continue reading Two for the new year … woof!
Category: W.W. Norton
P.S. Dante’s salty bread
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
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
Nick Owchar 
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