The Life of an Unknown Man – Andreï Makine
If Makine has built a romantic aura around his own persona, with his character Shutov he mocks that romanticism.
My First Suicide – Jerzy Pilch
It’s hard not to feel drawn into a unity with Pilch’s protagonist, even if you’ve never felt compelled to imagine unbuttoning Anna Karenina’s corset.
Prehistoric Times – Eric Chevillard
What is fifty thousand years, really, in the context of the universe?
Prehistoric Times – Eric Chevillard
The vernacular is ostentatious in the best way possible, and the occasional geeky archeologist terminology is believable coming from the mouth of the narrator, who can be imagined as a sort of David Schwimmer character during his Friends-era popularity.
The Expendable Man – Dorothy B. Hughes
Noir does not present a puzzle to be solved. We can expect no easy answers, because the answer is not the point.
There are two types of people in this world, as far as I can tell: shit-givers, and shit-shooters.
Fatalism in American Film Noir: Some Cinematic Philosophy – Robert Pippin
Given our recent history, an attempt to develop a theory of agency that probes behaviors like risk-taking and gambling is a welcome philosophical exercise.
These not-yet-women who still have curfews and require hall passes — what is it that makes them so goddamned scary?
The Age of Miracles – Karen Thompson Walker
Walker’s prose, like her imagining, is competent, but also rather predictable.
What Are Poets For? – Gerald L. Bruns
Bruns does not provide an answer to the question of what poets are for, but he does provide an extended answer to the question of what poets do: a great many things, in a great many ways.