Below are my ten most memorable reads of 2023, fiction and nonfiction, out of my 33 first-time reads. Actually I've thrown 11 chariots into the race, and an honorable runner-up. For each book, I've listed some excerpts, not necessarily the "best" -- there are countless great quotes in all of these -- but just a … Continue reading Favorite reads of 2023
If I knew little about "Paradise Lost" before reading it this past summer, I knew nothing about "Paradise Regained". I guessed that it would deal with the Second Coming, but I was off by at least two thousand years. "In the Wilderness," artwork by Ron DiCianni "Paradise Regained" is a short retelling of Jesus' temptation … Continue reading Paradise Regained
Ivan Karamazov issues the following challenge to his devout brother Alyosha, before sharing with him the now-famous parable about the Grand Inquisitor, in Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov": Tell me straight out, I call on you—answer me: imagine that you yourself are building the edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy … Continue reading The Grand Inquisitor and Rebellion
I've recently finished "The Brothers Karamazov", a book that's tough-to-chew, frustrating, blasphemous, hilarious, delirious and puzzling: in short, a great book. I want to start with just a few *brief* remarks about the Grand Inquisitor story, the parable that Ivan Karazamov composes and shares with his brother Alyosha. The parable is so well-known that I … Continue reading The Grand Inquisitor and Exodus
