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Criticism

 

Book Reviews

Here's an essay on book reviewing.

Below are book reviews which have appeared in American Book Review, Books in Canada--The Canadian Review of Books, Canadian Stories, Midwest Book Review, Quarter After Eight, The Quarterly Conversation, Rain Taxi, and the Review of Contemporary Fiction. Reviews from Amazon come after.

American Book Review

Diary of a Blood Donor
by Mati Unt
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Parson's Widow The Mirror In The Well
by Micheline Aharonian Marcom
(March/April 2009)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Parson's Widow The Parson's Widow
by Marja-Liisa Vartio (Volume 30, Number 1, November/December 2008)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Everything Passes Everything Passes
by Gabriel Josipovici (January/February 2008)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

You can visit www.carcanet.co.uk
to order Gabriel's book
 

Books in Canada

Ceased publishing in 2008


Cover image of The Last Novel The Last Novel
by David Markson (June 2008)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Book of Chameleons The Book of Chameleons
by José Eduardo Agualusa (January/February 2008)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Solzhenitsyn Reader The Solzhenistyn Reader: New and Essential Writings 1947-2005
edited by Edward E. Ericson, Jr. and Daniel F. Mahoney (December 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Cover image of African Psycho African Psycho
by Alain Mabanckou (December 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Porius Image of cover of Descents of Memory Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys and
Porius
by Morine Krissdóttir and John Cowper Powys (November 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Conversations with Professor Y Conversations with Professor Y
by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (October 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Double-Blind
by Michelle Butler Hallett (October 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Firmin Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife
by Sam Savage (October 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Die, Lady, Die Die, Lady, Die
by Alejandro López (September 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Voice of the Heart The Voice of the Heart:
The Workings of Mervyn Peake's Imagination
by G. Peter Winnington (September 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Oceans Image of cover of From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow:
How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame and
Oceans: An Illustrated Reference
by Mark Monmonier and Dorrik Stow respectively (March 2007)
Images courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Skipping towards Armageddon Skipping Towards Armageddon:
The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire
by Michael Standaert (January/February 2007)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Singer on the Shore The Singer on the Shore: Essays 1991-2004
by Gabriel Josipovici (November 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

You can visit www.carcanet.co.uk
to order Gabriel's book
 

Image of the cover of Siberia Siberia
by Nikolai Maslov (November 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Centuria Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels
by Giorgio Manganelli (October 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

You can visit www.mcphersonco.com
to order this book in paperback
 

Image of cover of Things in the Night Things in the Night and
Hidden Camera
by Mati Unt and Zoran Zivkovic (September 2006)
Images courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Lunar Follies Lunar Follies
by Gilbert Sorrentino (May/June 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Cover image of A Strange Commonplace A Strange Commonplace
by Gilbert Sorrentino (May/June 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Over the Rainbow? Hardly Over the Rainbow? Hardly: Collected Short Seizures
by Chandler Brossard (April 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of My Life in CIA My Life in CIA: A Chronicle of 1973
by Harry Mathews (January/Febuary 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Going Down
by David Markson (January/February 2006)
 
Copyright © 2005 by David Markson from Going Down: A Novel.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Cover design by Gopa & Ted2
 

Image of cover of Spring Forward Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time
by Michael Downing (November 2005)
 
Copyright © 2006 by Michael Downing from Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Cover design by Kimberly Glyder Design
 

Image of cover of Sebastian's Arrows Sebastian's Arrows:
Letters and Mementoes of Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia
Lorca ed, trans., annotated by Christopher Maurer (October 2005)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Cover image of A*hole A*hole
by Hilton Obenzinger (September 2005)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Memories of My Melancholy Whores Memories of My Melancholy Whores
by Gabriel García Márquez (September 2005)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Tribute to Saul Bellow
(May 2005)
 

Image of cover of the End The End: Hamburg 1943
by Hans Erich Nossack (March 2005)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Vanishing Point Vanishing Point
by David Markson (January/February 2005)
 
Copyright © 2004 by David Markson from Vanishing Point: A Novel.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Cover design by Kimberly Glyder Design
 

Image of cover of Right and Left Right and Left
by Joseph Roth (November 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Fountain at the Center of the World The Fountain at the Center of the World
by Robert Newman (September 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Goldberg Variations Goldberg: Variations
by Gabriel Josipovici (September 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

You can visit www.carcanet.co.uk
to order Gabriel's book
 

Image of cover of Siegfried Siegfried
by Harry Mulisch (August 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Moon in Its Flight The Moon in Its Flight
by Gilbert Sorrentino (June/July 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Tests of Time Tests of Time: Essays
by William H. Gass (April/May 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Dan Yack Image of cover of Confessions of Dan Yack Image of cover of Gold Dan Yack,
Confessions of Dan Yack and
Gold
by Blaise Cendrars (January/February 2004)
Images courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Cover image of Actress in the House Actress in the House
by Joseph McElroy (January/Febuary 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of P P
by Andrew Lewis Conn (January/Febuary 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Three Novellas Three Novellas
by Thomas Bernhard (December 2003)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Dance of Geometry The Dance of Geometry
by Brian Howell (October 2003)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Ascension Ascension
by Steven Galloway (September 2003)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Rush for Second Place Image of cover of Agape Agape Agapē Agape and
The Rush for Second Place
by William Gaddis (April 2003)
Images courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Canadian Stories

Fish, Soap, and Bonds
by Larry Fondation
Vol. 11, No. 64 (Dec. 2008/Jan. 2009)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

The Literary Review

The Withdrawal Method
Review of The Withdrawal Method by Pasha Malla
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Literary Review

God, Hell, Sex and Tobacco
Review of Collaborators by Janet Kaufmann
February 1989
 

Spanish Fly By Night
Review of City of Marvels by Carlos Mendoza
December 1988
 

Unholy and not Innocent
Review of The Unholy Innocents: A Romance by Gilbert Adair
October 1988
 

Midwest Book Review

Image of cover of Riding Toward Everywhere Image of cover of Then We Came to the End Then We Came to the End
by Joshua Ferris
Riding Toward Everywhere
by William T. Vollmann
Images courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Cover image of Valencia Valencia
by Michelle Tea
July 2009
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Cover image of The Last Novel The Last Novel
by David Markson
April 2009
An alternate version of the review
that appeared in Books in Canada.
See above for the printed version.
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Fish, Soap, and Bonds
by Larry Fondation
April 2009

For an alternate review of this book,
see above under Canadian Stories
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

The Braindead Megaphone: Essays
by George Saunders
April 2009

 

Image of cover of Time at War Time at War
by Nicholas Mosley
April 2009
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

O Street
by Corrina Wycoff
April 2009
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Quarter After Eight

Image of cover of QAE Vol 15 Volume 15, February 2009

 

Image of cover of Monsieur Jean-Phillipe Toussaint, Monsieur
Dalkey Archive Press, 2008, 102 pp., $12.95, paperback, mixed genre
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Camera Jean-Phillipe Toussaint, Camera
Dalkey Archive Press, 2008, 120 pp., $12.95, from the uncorrected galleys, mixed genre.
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Customer Is Always Wrong Jeff Martin, The Customer Is Always Wrong:
The Retail Chronicles
Soft Skull Press, 2008, 172 pp., $12.95, paperback, nonfiction.

 

Image of cover of The Corrections Volume 9, March 2003

 

Image of cover of The Corrections Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
NY: Picador USA, 2002, 592 pp., $15.00, paperback, fiction.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Copyright © 2001 by Jonathan Franzen.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
 

James Buchan, The Persian Bride
Boston: Mariner, 1999, 343 pp., paperback, fiction.
 

Image of cover of House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves
London: Pantheon, 2002, 709 pp., paperback, fiction.

The Quarterly Conversation

After & Making Mistakes
by Gabriel Josipovici
22 March 2010

 

William Gaddis, "The Last of Something": Critical Essays
Review of William Gaddis, "The Last of Something": Critical Essays
eds. Crystal Alberts, Christopher Leise and Birger Vanwesenbeeck
(Issue 19, Spring 2010)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Rain Taxi

William T. Vollmann: A Critical Study and Seven Interviews
by Michael Hemmingson

(Spring 2010 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Conversations with Julian Barnes
ed. by Vanessa Guignery and Ryan Roberts

(Spring 2010 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Bridge of the Golden Horn
by Emine Sevgi Özdamar
translated by Martin Chalmers

(Winter 2010 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

 

Waste
by Eugene Marten

(Fall 2009 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

 

Image of cover of Night Work Night Work
by Thomas Glavinic
(review appears in spring print edition
click on novel cover for a pdf of the review)
The Soul and Barbed Wire:
An Introduction to Solzhenitsyn
by Edward Ericson, Jr. and Alexis Klimoff
(review appears in spring online edition
click here for the URL or here for a pdf version)
Images courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

My Father's Wives
by José Eduardo Agualusa translated by Daniel Hahn

(Winter 2008/2009 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Sheer Fiction IV
by Paul West (Winter 2008/2009 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of The Letters of John Cowper Powys and Emma Goldman The Letters of John Cowper Powys
and Emma Goldman
by David Goodway (Fall 2008 online issue)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Image of cover of Finger Review of Call Me Ahab
by Anne Finger (Spring 2010)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Kissed By Review of Kissed By
by Alexandra Chasin (Summer 2008)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Colonel Zoo Review of Colonel Zoo
by Oliver Cadiot (Summer 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Review of Memories of My Melancholy Whores
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Spring 2006)
 

Image of cover of Writers on the Air Review of Writers on the Air:
Conversations about Books and
The Believer's Book of Writers Talking to Writers
by, respectively, Donna Seaman and Vendela Vida, ed.
(Spring 2006)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Gold Review of Gold
by Blaise Cendrars (Summer 2005)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Moravagine Review of Moravagine
by Blaise Cendrars (Spring 2005)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of P Review of P
by Andrew Lewis Conn (Spring 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of We Always Treat Women Too Well Image of cover of Witch Grass Review of Witch Grass and
We Always Treat Women Too Well
by Raymond Queneau (Fall 2003), reprinted in CONTEXT #15 (Spring 2004)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of To the End of the World Review of To the End of the World
by Blaise Cendrars (Spring 2003),
reprinted in CONTEXT #13 (Spring 2003)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Selected Works of Cesare Pavese Review of Selected Works of Cesare Pavese
by Cesare Pavese, trans. and intro. R.W. Flint (Summer 2002)
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner

Amazon.com Reviews

Image of cover of The Enchanted House

The Enchanted House
by Beth E. Janzen
"Room for everyone" -- September 11, 2007
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Image of cover of Tests of Time

Tests of Time: Essays
by William Gass
"Not much of an essay writer" -- May 13, 2004
[See BiC for a lengthy review of this book]
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

Memed My Hawk
by Yashar Kemal
"Sturdy but it doesn't involve one" -- December 25, 2001
 

The First World War
by Ivan Klima
"A servicable work" -- December 13, 2001
 

My Golden Trades
by Ivan Klima
"A light touch" -- December 13, 2001
 

Women of Sand and Myrrh: A novel
by Hanan Al-Shaykh
"Parched" -- November 24, 2001
 

The Persian Bride
by James Buchan
"Poetic, hard-edged and timely" -- November 6, 2001
[see "Three Reviews" for another review of this book]
 

Image of cover of The Corrections

The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
"A tight fit" -- October 30, 2001
[see "Three Reviews" for another review of this book]
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. Copyright © 2001 by Jonathan Franzen.
Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
 

Wyndham Lewis: Painter and Writer
by Paul Edwards
"A clear gaze on a murky fellow" -- October 28, 2001
 

Legally Speaking:
Contemporary American Culture and the Law
by Helle Porsdam
"A persuasive case" -- April 3, 2001
 

The Intuitionist: A Novel
by Colson Whitehead
"An underwhelming novel" -- March 14, 2001
 

November 1916: The Red Wheel/Knot II
by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn
"Hunting for history with a big net" -- December 9, 2000
 

Petrushka and the Dancer: the Diaries of John Cowper Powys, 1929-1939
by John Cowper Powys
"Not just another english eccentric" -- December 2, 2000
 

Rude Assignment
by Wyndham Lewis
"Look into the shadows" -- November 30, 2000
 

Diaries: 1899-1941
by Robert Musil
"The penetrating mind of Robert Musil" -- November 27, 2000
 

Image of cover of Moravagine

Moravagine
by Blaise Cendrars
"Sickness unto death" -- September 19, 2000
[see RCF for another review of this book]
Image courtesy of publisher, copyright owner
 

"Since at Least Plato...": And Other Postmodernist Myths
by M.J. Devaney
"Passion and intelligence combined" -- June 9, 2000
 

Vast Alchemies
by G. Peter Winnington
"The mind and art behind the 'Titus' books" -- May 29, 2000