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Two capable men, undone by mutual hatred.

Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson

Be careful what you wish for: Lyndon Johnson assumes power

Just below the surface of Robert Caro's praise for Lyndon Johnson's assumption of the presidency in 1963 lurks an underlying, fundamental belief that LBJ's demons outnumbered his angels.

Armen Pandola

Jun 19, 2012 Articles 10 minute read

A Ray Bradbury remembrance (1st tribute)

My summer on the tongue with Ray Bradbury

After years of reading the late Ray Bradbury's work, I heard his voice: a genuine melody of words and images tumbling in mid-air until they hit the ear just as they hit the page.

Kathleen L. Erlich

Jun 11, 2012 Articles 3 minute read

In the Internet age, who has innocence to lose?

E.L. James's "Fifty Shades of Grey'

Not the whips and chains again!, or: Fifty Shades meets the voice of experience

Just what the world needs: another romance novel about a blushing virgin who's ravished by a wealthy, attractive and powerful sadomasochist. As an older woman who has known genuine pain and loss, I have a better idea.

Terri Kirby Erickson

May 22, 2012 Articles 3 minute read

Carlos Fuentes as I remember him

The writer who bit his own tail

The magical but realistic novels of Carlos Fuentes are compendiums of pulsating narratives and capacious realms of knowledge. He wrote in a genre that raises questions at a time when all forms of story are suspect and knowledge is represented as what anyone can locate on the Internet.

AJ Sabatini

May 19, 2012 Articles 7 minute read

Manchette: Enfant terrible of the New Wave.

Three noir novels by Manchette

Abandon all hope, ye who seek rational explanations

In Jean-Patrick Manchette's short, jazzy, ultra-violent thrillers, chaos reigns and moral codes count for very little.

Andrew Mangravite

May 08, 2012 Articles 3 minute read

J. M. Ledgard's "Submergence'

The novel as metaphor

Part international thriller, part philosophical romance, J. M. Ledgard's Submergence is that rare postmodern fiction, a work whose disparate parts cohere finally into an unexpected whole. It also suggests that our hyperintelligent species may be too clever to survive. Submergence. By J.M. Ledgard. Jonathan Cape, 2011. 191 pages. www.amazon.com.

Robert Zaller

Apr 21, 2012 Articles 7 minute read

Applying words the way painters apply pigment.

In defense of Janet Malcolm (Part II)

Let me walk with Janet while the others ride by

Dan Rottenberg's criticisms notwithstanding, I remain Janet Malcolm's devoted admirer. Show me an original, compelling, well-constructed voice, and I will tolerate content that rankles others. Besides, you could level the same criticisms at Tolstoy and Tom Wolfe.

Feb 14, 2012 Articles 6 minute read

Jane Austen's fictitous Bennets weren't rich; their whole society was poor.

Sylvia Nasar's "Grand Pursuit'

The liberation of the 90 per cent

Why are we so much better off materially than our ancestors? The author of A Beautiful Mind tells the story of the economists who wrestled with the process that liberated humankind from “the nightmare of the past.”