Wondercon and my 401(k)

While the literary world is mourning the passing of one superhero right now (rest in peace,Gabriel Garcia Marquez!) and Christians everywhere are celebrating another this weekend, I've been thinking about comic book heroes after taking my boys to Wondercon in Anaheim, Calif. It was the perfect opportunity to make some acquisitions like these and also … Continue reading Wondercon and my 401(k)

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

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