what should I read

James Agee A Death In The Family Review Response Writer Workshops

Book Response: A Death In The Family

James Agee’s A Death In The Family follows a young family in the early 20th century directly before and after the unexpected, sudden death of the patriarch, Jay Follet. Agee beautifully illustrates how each family member copes with Jay’s death, following their journey from anxiety to anger to confusion to acceptance. But despite the beauty […]

The Birds Tarjei Vesaas book review literary fiction workshops

Book Response: The Birds

Difficulty Categorizing This Book I have never read a book quite like this before. Perhaps that’s because it was written by a Norwegian author. Or perhaps it’s because of the original publication year (1957). Despite the novel’s tiny cast and contained setting, I found that I did not want to put it down. Ironically, there […]

The Lover by Marguerite Duras

Book Response: The Lover

The Lover by Marguerite Duras What a perfect novel to read following Robert Olen Butler’s From Where You Dream. There are several things I admire about Marguerite Duras’s The Lover. First, the prose itself is lyrical and unique. Her analogies and themes are consistent and poignant throughout. In fact, the entire novel reads like one […]

Ragtime book cover E.L. Doctorow

Review: Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

Recently, I read E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime Admittedly, this was for a class, and I’m not sure I would have picked it up on a whim. I’d never even heard of it, even though Modern Library lists it as #86 on its list of 100 Best Novels. To be fair, I don’t agree with everything on […]