Random House Review by Walter Cummins The title captures the central concern of Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, which addresses with depth and complexity what a community of individuals is willing…
Tag: Review by Walter Cummins
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore
Liveright Review by Walter Cummins In her latest book, Jill Lepore presents her analysis of how we have reached the creation of the Artificial State where machines set the guidelines…
Endless Endings: The Many Forms of Death and What They Teach Us About Life by Ricard Solé, trans. by Eduardo Aparicio
Princeton Review by Walter Cummins Endless Endings brings to mind lines from Hotspur’s dying speech in Henry IV, Part 1: “And time, that takes a survey of all the world, …
The Kindness of Terrible People and Other Stories by Stephanie Dupal
Swan Abbey Review by Walter Cummins This is a collection of original and unusual stories, the characters richly developed as they face essential dilemmas. Some of these people exemplify the…
Sunrise by Téa Obreht
Random House Review by Walter Cummins Téa Obreht’s latest work, Sunrise, while offering seemingly self-contained narratives about events from several different time periods, can also be regarded as a novel…
The Slap and the Salamander by Chris Arthur
Serving House Review by Walter Cummins I had my first contact with Chris Arthur several decades ago when he submitted an essay to a quarterly I was editing. We, the…
The Frenchmen, or My Life in Theory by Emily Eakin
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Emily Eakin’s life in theory began in the late 1980s when she was an eighteen-year-old sophomore at Harvard and fell “under the Frenchmen’s spell.” That’s…
Born Lucky by Sarah McElwain
Rain Mountain Review by Walter Cummins A question hovering over Sarah McElwain’s entire novel from the very first sentence is whether the unlikely named Evening K. Titlebaum will be granted…
Heather by Caitlin Mullen
Celadon Review by Walter Cummins Caitlin Mullen’s Please See Us received the Edgar first novel award in 2021. Whether Heather will follow with similar affirmation from mystery judges is still…
The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh by James Lasdun
Norton Review by Walter Cummins Of course, I had heard of Alex Murdaugh. It would have been difficult not to if you followed the news after 2019. How could the…