Rick Soisson

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Contributor

BSR Contributor Since July 15, 2008

Rick Soisson is a Senior English Lecturer at Montgomery County Community College; he previously taught at three other Philadelphia area colleges and two high schools. He was also the last Director of Patient Relations at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, a post he held for 15 years. He lives in East Falls with his wife and daughter.

Rick Soisson is a Senior English Lecturer at Montgomery County Community College; he has previously taught at three other Philadelphia area colleges and two high schools. He was also the last Director of Patient Relations at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, a post he held for 15 years. He lives in East Falls with his wife and daughter.

By this Author

40 results

Page 1

We Pennsylvanians have seen this before. 1903 'Tacoma Times' editorial cartoon by Bob Satterfield. (Image via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

NPR won't chase a presidential lie

Dreck, lies, and audiotape

NPR has decided its correspondents should not to refer to President Donald Trump's lies as "lies." Rick Soisson sees a problem with that decision.

Rick Soisson

Jan 30, 2017 Essays 3 minute read

"Trump Wins." (Painting by Dan Lacey via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Arthur Caplan, Donald's Trumpettes, and me

How did we get here?

Rick Soisson wonders about "the line between civilization and something else," and finds the intersection between former Penn medical ethicist Arthur Caplan and Donald Trump.

Rick Soisson

Dec 27, 2016 Essays 3 minute read

Jennifer Haigh tells the story of the Marcellus shale and those who stand in its way.

'Heat & Light' by Jennifer Haigh

Fracking: The novel

Jennifer Haigh's novel 'Heat & Light' visits a fracking-fed Pennsylvania town in Trump country. Rick Soisson reviews.

Rick Soisson

Nov 22, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

In <em>'Angels Burning,'</em> secrets rise like Centralia's smoke. (Photo by Cole Young via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Tawni O'Dell's newest novel, 'Angels Burning'

Mine fires of the mind

Novelist Tawni O'Dell set her newest book at the site of a long-burning coal fire that's not under Centralia. Rick Soisson wonders why.

Rick Soisson

Sep 08, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

British spy John Andre, after the party. (Illustration via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

'Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love,' by Thomas H. Keels

William Penn and prostitutes: All the news that's unfit to print

Rick Soisson reviews 'Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Brotherly Love,' Thomas Keels's 2010 catalog of our city's historic scandals and scoundrels.

Rick Soisson

Jul 03, 2016 Articles 4 minute read

There are about 1.5 million stories in this particular naked city. (Illustration for <em>BSR</em> by Mike Jackson of alrightmike.com)

'Philadelphia Noir,' edited by Carlin Romano

Real and imagined crimes

This overlooked 2010 collection of Philadelphia neighborhood-based noir fiction contains plenty of surprises, literary flourishes, and a crazy Biddle.

Rick Soissonand Illustration by Mike Jackson

May 30, 2016 Articles 4 minute read

Baby boomers confront posterity

From here to oblivion

As death approaches, says Michael Kinsley, we baby boomers have become obsessed with our generation’s reputation. He should stop talking to writers and get out in the real world.

Rick Soisson

Apr 11, 2016 Essays 4 minute read

Advice from Pulitzer winner Dave Barry. (Photo by Amazur via Creative Commons/Wikipedia)

Dave Barry’s 'Live Right and Find Happiness'

High silliness

The temptation is to simply fill up my review of Dave Barry's new book with quotations, but I won’t, even though he is perhaps the only living writer who can make me laugh so hard I weep.

Rick Soisson

Apr 02, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

It starts with kids playing lacrosse. (Photo by Lee Weissman via uslacrosse.org)

Harlan Coben’s ‘The Stranger’

Dirty big secrets

In his latest thriller, Harlan Coben builds a taut meditation on privilege, control, and facades. All three concepts revolve around the notion that, even if you feel safe, human things fall apart.

Rick Soisson

Mar 21, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

Life is not a field of roses for Hap and Leonard.

Sundance TV’s 'Hap and Leonard'

Politics and the buddy film

Hap and Leonard depends on the clichéd Hollywood notion that folks at the bottom of the economic ladder are all actually remarkably intelligent, witty, and, under the skin, brothers in capitalistic striving.

Rick Soisson

Mar 08, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

A confusing book about confusion: author Cleave.

Paul Cleave’s ‘Trust No One’

Narrative manipulation as madness

In Trust No One, Paul Cleave moves into interesting territory that involves unfair terrain for the reader, with contradictory versions of the protagonist's interior monologue.

Rick Soisson

Mar 01, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

Robin Kirman’s 'Bradstreet Gate'

A tangent to murder

Bradstreet Gate is a promising first novel, a book first about uncertainty, but also about the difference between even bright students’ fantasies and “actual, multifarious reality,” as well as the odd, formative nature of friendships made on the threshold of adulthood.

Rick Soisson

Feb 11, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

John Ridley's 'American Crime,' season two

Too many shades of gray

The second season of American Crime raises intelligent questions: Can a teenager struggling with his sexual orientation and rough sex fantasies actually be raped, and is there any hope of establishing that legally? Or is Taylor an odd variation of the Victorian heroine who dreams of being ravished, but then decides that wasn’t such a good idea after the fact?

Rick Soisson

Feb 09, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

Ann Beattie shows off her ability to handle strangeness in her first collection in a decade.

'The State We're In: Maine Stories' by Ann Beattie

Modern relationships

John Updike surely would have approved of Ann Beattie's pitch-perfect dialogue and her descriptions of the things we all define our existences by in her first collection of short stories in a decade.

Rick Soisson

Jan 30, 2016 Articles 3 minute read

Gathering around the TV to watch some centrifugal bumble-puppy.

How do we get our news?

Breaking: BSR contributor launches newsfeed!

We have all become fairly sloppy about where we look for information to feed our minds and possibly act on. However, it is what it is, and in that spirit I am happy to announce that on December 18, I transformed my Twitter feed into a highly respected newsfeed.

Rick Soisson

Dec 21, 2015 Essays 5 minute read