Belknap / Harvard Review by David Starkey “Emily Dickinson was a letter writer before she was a poet,” professors Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell state in the opening sentence of…
Author: David Starkey
Held by Anne Michaels
Knopf Review by David Starkey California Review of Books is a bit late to the party in reviewing Anne Michaels’ Booker-nominated third novel, Held, although perhaps we may be excused…
Rome: Pedestrians Beware by Rafael Alberti (trans. and with essays by Anthony L. Geist & Giuseppe Leporace)
Swan Isle Review by David Starkey As someone who has spent a fair bit of time in the Eternal City, I can say that in order to truly love Rome,…
Memories of Distant Mountains by Orhan Pamuk
Knopf Review by David Starkey Writing in the New York Times, Dwight Garner dismissed Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009-2022 as “breezy and frictionless,” “a book of…
I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition by Lucy Sante
Penguin Review by David Starkey The paperback version of Lucy Sante’s I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition was published on January 21, 2025, the day after…
An Interview with Sonicbond Publisher Stephen Lambe
Interview by David Starkey Stephen Lambe founded Sonicbond Publishing in 2018, after spending most of his career working for independent non-fiction publishers. During his time in the industry, Lambe learned…
A Sunny Place for Shady People: How Malta Became One of the Most Curious and Corrupt Places in the World by Ryan Murdock
Trinity Review by David Starkey Ryan Murdock’s A Sunny Place for Shady People: How Malta Became One of the Most Curious and Corrupt Places in the World feels like two…
Portraits in Life and Death by Peter Hujar
Liveright Review by David Starkey Originally published in 1976, Peter Hujar’s Portraits in Life and Death might well be called Portraits of Life in Death or Portraits of Death in…
The Prelude by William Wordsworth
Brandeis Review by David Starkey The subtitle to this edition of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude provides a hint of just how jam-packed the book is with ancillary material. “Newly Edited…
Feint of Heart: Art Writings, 1982-2002 by Dave Hickey
David Zwirner Review by David Starkey Like Greil Marcus writing about music, or Jed Perl and the late Peter Schjeldahl writing about art, Dave Hickey’s essays are interesting whether or…