Geraldine Brook’s The Secret Chord
The phenomenally gifted Geraldine Brooks has returned with her newest novel, The Secret Chord, and, like The People of The Book before it, it’s both magnificent, historically accurate, and often very moving. Her prose is as close to poetry, or prose poetry, as we are likely to see this year. Fascinated by aspects of historical Judaism, in this novel, Brooks […]
Jonathan Franzen’s Purity
Jonathan Franzen’s one of those hugely praised younger writers; sometimes I think his writing and ideas are superb, sometimes not; I often wonder about the wild adulation given to him (and also to Michael Chabon). But Franzen’s newest novel, Purity, although receiving a huge range of reviews, from positive to mixed to negative, is really a first […]
Maxwell’s Poetry Corner
Brink He introduced me to his son. He was enamored. In awe. When he introduced me to Jennings, procurer of me and D’s first dance – front stage – our wedding night, his eyes reflected enlightenment. When he introduced me to Black Rebel, I believed him that it was real rock-n-roll, baby. […]