Baraka, Amiri. Dutchman and The Slave. 1964. New York: Harper, 2001. I bought this book to use while completing my essay in the forthcoming Modern Language Association volume Approaches to Teaching Baraka’s Dutchman, for which it is the standard edition. However, I’ve never read The Slave before, and I look forward to it. I love Baraka’sContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Category Archives: Literature
Theodora Keogh’s Gemini
I just finished reading Theodora Keogh’s 1961 novel, Gemini. As I mentioned in my previous post, it is about a brother and sister who are lovers. Their attraction for one another is never fully explained; it is part of their mysterious connection as twins, a magical force unknowable to outsiders. As such, it is difficultContinue reading “Theodora Keogh’s Gemini”
Ann Bannon’s The Marriage
I just finished reading Ann Bannon’s 1960 novel The Marriage. It is the only one of her novels that is not a part of the excellent Beebo Brinker series of lesbian pulp fiction. However, two characters from the series, Laura Landon and Jack Mann, play a major role in it, and it takes place just after theContinue reading “Ann Bannon’s The Marriage”
Book Acquired Recently: B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates
Johnson, B.S. The Unfortunates. 1969. New York: New Directions, 2007. This is one of my favorite books. I already have a copy, but just received a desk copy from the publisher (New Directions is great!) because I’ll be using it in one of my classes this fall. It is more of an art object thanContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates”
Gabriel García Márquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera
I just finished reading Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. What a fascinating, intense, perplexing book! It is one of the most profound books I’ve ever read in that much of what it says about love is spot-on, and for that reason it is a treasure, but at the same time, IContinue reading “Gabriel García Márquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera”
Book Acquired Recently: Gabriel García Márquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera
Márquez, Gabriel García. Love in the Time of Cholera. 1988. Trans. Edith Grossman. New York: Vintage, 2003. A good friend of mine has recommended this book to me numerous times, and finally insisted that I must read it NOW, so I went and picked it up. I’ve previously read Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of SolitudeContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Gabriel García Márquez’s Love In The Time of Cholera”
Home by Toni Morrison
I just finished reading Toni Morrison’s new novel, Home. It is not her best book, but is still a beautiful achievement. It exemplifies the smooth, vivid prose which evokes scenes clearly in readers’ minds that makes her one of my favorite authors. Home is not as good as her two finest works, Beloved and SongContinue reading “Home by Toni Morrison”
Books Acquired Recently
Butler, Octavia E. Lilith’s Brood. New York: Grand Central, 1989. Butler’s Kindred is one of my favorite books, but I’ve never read any of her science fiction (SF) novels. This book, along with Card’s, is for an independent study I’m doing with a student this summer. Card, Orson Scott, ed. Masterpieces: The Best Science FictionContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Why I Care About Sports
This post is for all you haters out there (you know who you are!) who mock otherwise-intelligent people like me for being sports fans. My colleagues in academia are often baffled when they find out that I follow sports. Part of this surprise is a form of classism: sports fandom is seen as blue collar,Continue reading “Why I Care About Sports”
Book Acquired Recently: James Tiptree, Jr.’s Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Tiptree, James Jr. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. San Francisco: Tachyon, 2004. Bought at amazon.com I read one of Tiptree’s short stories, “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” about a year ago and loved it, and since then I’ve been looking for her (James Tiptree, Jr. is a pseudonym for Alice Sheldon) books in bookstores. SaltContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: James Tiptree, Jr.’s Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”
Daniel Shank Cruz 