Category Archives: General

I’m rereading Brothers Karamazov after many years. What a great book! And what resonance with US political dynamics of the moment. In the core of the complicated plot is a murder mystery driven by the mechanism of the inciter and the incited. The murderer eventually admits his crime (privately, to the inciter; the forces ofContinue reading “Brothers Karamazov”

James McBride, Deacon King Kong (2020) is the best American novel I’ve read in years. What’s so good about it? The characters, the language, the wit, the strong sense of place, the original take on drug-infested ghetto life, the humanizing effect of the story. (If this is too much to read for a Facebook post,Continue reading “James McBride, Deacon King Kong”