Favorite reads of 2022

My ten most memorable reads of 2022, fiction and nonfiction, out of my 42 first-time reads: 1. The Book of Job -- Robert Alter's translation “Oh, let that night be barren, let it have no song of joy.Let the day-cursers hex it, those ready to rouse Leviathan.Let its twilight stars go dark.Let it hope for … Continue reading Favorite reads of 2022

The Odyssey, books 11-24

Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey is unsentimental. Her language is poetic but straightforward, and never prettified. It's unsparing about the violence and moral ambiguities in Homer's poem, and not surprisingly, reading it is an emotional experience. This happens often in the space of one line, or just in single word of double meaning, as … Continue reading The Odyssey, books 11-24

Pinocchio and Moby Dickens

My 10-year-old daughter and I recently read Carlo Collodi's 1883 story, "The Adventures of Pinocchio." Now, it turns out that the story is fairly dark, much more than the famous Disney movie of 1940. Parents may wish to be careful with this one, and a full plot description of Collodi's story can be found on … Continue reading Pinocchio and Moby Dickens

Don Quixote – Les Misérables edition

Lionel Trilling famously stated, ''All prose fiction is a variation of the theme of 'Don Quixote'." Therefore I try, in the most literal way possible, to find our famous knight and squire in the pages of every novel I read. Well, I recently finished all 1,304 pages of "Les Misérables," and I couldn't find them. … Continue reading Don Quixote – Les Misérables edition