Charles C. Mann, 1493. Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. Alfred A. Knopf, 9 August 2011. $30.50, 544 pages. Apart from its misleading subtitle, Charles Mann’s 1493. Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, is a book to celebrate. (Columbus’ personal contribution to the creation of the new world Mann describes was roughly the same as Johannes […]
Reviews
Review of “Just One Catch,” a Biography of Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller assembled the manuscript for Catch-22 from a collection of notes on index cards. The novel began to spring forth, Heller would recall, “when suddenly this line came to me: ‘It was love at first sight. The first time he saw the chaplain, Someone fell madly in love with him.’” He jotted it down. […]
Review of “The Swinger”
The Swinger is the kind of novel the French call a roman à clef. A literary strategy designed to pillory real people by creating characters whose identities have been disguised just enough to give the author—or in this case, authors—plausible deniability, the roman à clef has long been used to settle scores, or to provide […]
Golf and Boxing: Unlikely Cousins in the Arena, Seen Through the Vision of Novelist Katherine Dunn.
Last week, the novelist Katherine Dunn died of lung cancer. I am proud to say that Katherine was a dear friend, which is hardly a unique claim. Everyone who knew Katherine treasured her friendship. Although an internationally acclaimed writer, Katherine put on no airs–she was funny and kind and generous before Geek Love made her […]
“Big in Beijing”–Review of an Accidental Rock Star’s Odyssey
When the Wall Street Journal offered Alan Paul’s wife a posting to Beijing as its China bureau chief in 2005, he had no idea that within three years, he would be a rock star, the front man for Beijing’s “band of the year,” the eponymous “Woodie Alan.” (The band’s handle was a combination of Paul’s […]
John Updike’s “Golf Dreams”–An Appreciation
John Updike was the literary Sam Snead. Golf Dreams: Writings on Golf, published in 1996, was his 49th book, a miscellany of golf-related short stories, essays, excerpts from novels and the occasional poem. As a writer, Updike was long and straight. He was also a natural who strode onto the first tee of the Writer’s […]