First Love
First Love for José Angel Valente You were my first …
Category Archives: Books
Kindness, a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye
A friend who read my earlier post about Ira Sandperl and his book “A Little Kinder” sent me this wonderful …
A Little Kinder: An Old Friend Moves On
George Saunders, the celebrated American fiction writer, gave a commencement speech of the kind we all wish we’d had, to …
Gas Attacks
Reposting this first of all anti-war poems to make an impact on me as a young man, as news of …
Seamus Heaney Gone, Long Live His Tongue
Seamus Heaney has left us a lifetime-left of reading and contemplation. Here are two from “The Cure at Troy,” Heaney’s …
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, a Novel
Looking at a bookshelf while stopping through Winslow, Arizona I didn’t see a girl in a flat bed Ford but …
Elmore Leonard is El Hombre
Elmore Leonard has gone, leaving the finest, gun-tottinist gallery of characters on the range and in the hood this side …
Trans Atlantic by Colum McCann, A Novel
I took a break from my usual fare of fiction and philosophy about the darker reaches of human nature to …
The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Baines Johnson by Robert Caro
Robert Caro, a journalist and historian, is interested in power, its accumulation, its use and abuse in the hands of …
Failures of Kindness
George Saunders says: “What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. “ A review of his book …
“The Bear in the Back” from Tales of the Ixat
THE BEAR IN THE BACK I usually look back when they get in the cab. Just a quick glance is …
Beautiful Souls: A Review
Some time ago I spent a weekend in the company of fellow Vietnam War resisters, trying to talk about what …