Iris Murdoch: A Life book by Peter Conradi
Peter Ibbetson
The unique magnetism Iris Murdoch’s twenty-six novels exert on critics and public alike lies not solely in the vividness of her characterization and the fecund richness of her plots. Murdoch’s…
Fiction
The Corrections book by Jonathan Franzen
In a 1996 Harper’s article, then-obscure novelist Jonathan Franzen made what has since become a much-publicized boast. He claimed that his next novel—his third—would combine social commentary with memorable characters,…
Hamlet in Purgatory book by Stephen Greenblatt
For several months after my friend Elizabeth died, when I was sixteen, I would be awakened in the middle of the night by the feeling of a nearby shape. Not…
The Dying Animal book by Philip Roth
While the title creature of Philip Roth’s The Dying Animal is drawn from a Yeats poem, a gimlet-eyed reader might attribute the reference to the dead horse that Roth continues…
Stranger Shores book by J.M. Coetzee
At sixty-one years of age, the South African novelist J.M. Coetzee has crafted several treasures of contemporary fiction, including his most recent novel, Disgrace. The only author ever to win…
Political Fictions book by Joan Didion
Something about Joan Didion’s writing makes me almost believe every word. She’s so acridly disarming, so apparently prescient in her observations on American political life that I found myself doubting…
The Glass Palace book by Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh occupies a rather curious place in the landscape of contemporary English-language authors from the Indian subcontinent. At fifty-five years of age, he can’t be classed with the younger…
The Early Stories: 1953-1975 book by John Updike reviewed by Charlotte Dewar
Looking Backward A compendium of the early work of an American literary master In his 1986 introduction to a set of Paris Review interviews, John Updike quoted Philip Roth: “What…
Rules of Engagement book by Anita Brookner reviewed by Jessica Wheeler
Playing by the Rules In her twenty-second novel, Anita Brookner stays true to form In response to Anita Brookner’s third novel, critic Caryn James referred to what had at that…
War Talk by Arundhati Roy, reviewed by Kanishk Tharoor
War Talk by Arundhati Roy South End Press, 152 pp, $12.00 reviewed by Kanishk Tharoor After winning the Booker Prize for her first and only novel The God of Small…