Matthew Pearl is the best selling author of The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow. In his latest novel, The Last Dickens, Mr. Pearl takes on one of literatures greatest mysteries: How was Charles Dickens going to end The Mystery of Edwin Drood?
In 1870 Charles Dickens died, having published only six installments of his final novel…
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales, by Edgar Allan Poe, Edited and with an Introduction by Matthew Pearl, author of The Poe Shadow is a fun read. With Mr. Pearl’s introduction, we learn much concerning Poe and detective fiction. Continue reading →
Henry Bech, a writer whose first book was his best, whose “reputation had grown while his powers declined. As he felt himself sink, in his fiction, deeper and deeper into eclectic sexuality and bravura narcissism, as his search for plain truth carried him further and further into treacherous realms of fantasy and, lately, of silence, he was more and more thickly hounded by homage … Continue reading →
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Tagged John Updike
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This is a thrilling story about a ritual handed down for generations. June 27th arrives and the townsfolk gather in the town square; men, women and children. Jackson paints a detailed picture of the nonchalant attitude of the citizenry. Everyone had things to do, so they wanted the whole affair speeded up. Few clues were given. Just the gathering of stones by the children before everyone took their positions for the rite.
Poor Tessie Hutchinson. Continue reading →
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Tagged Shirley Jackson
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Hemingway delights us with his descriptions of the raw emotions of an unhappy couple, their hired professional hunter, and even the lion that catalyzes the story. Francis Macomber, rich and cuckolded can’t leave his beautiful wife because of some fear that Hemingway leaves us to figure out. Margaret (Margot) takes advantage of her husband’s inordinate fear by openly cheating on him and then treating him like a little boy when he complains. Robert Wilson is the professional hunter who sees the Macombers as his meal ticket and servicing Mrs. Macomber as part of his job. Continue reading →
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Tagged Ernest Hemingway
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I was 14 years old when I first heard of Bob Dylan. I was buying My first record album. I had bought 45 rpm singles before. That was all I was allowed to buy with my allowance but now that … Continue reading →
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Tagged Bob Dylan
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Today the news media covered the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.It reminded me of Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel, The Sun Also Rises. This is the novel that introduced a generation of Americans to the running of the bulls. … Continue reading →
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Tagged Ernest Hemingway
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A boy. A tiger. And the vast Pacific Ocean. This is the beginning of the brief tease on the front inside flap of the dust jacket of Life of Pi, a novel by Yann Martel. I read this novel in … Continue reading →
Matthew Pearl is a gifted writer, as I discovered a couple of years ago when I read The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow. I was a little behind the times because Mr. Pearl’s first novel, The Dante Club, had … Continue reading →
