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…
Tag: Review by Walter Cummins
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…
The Kindness of Strangers by Emma Garman
Summit Review by Walter Cummins I was more than half way through The Kindness of Strangers before I realized Emma Garman’s real subject in this novel, the uncertainty of identity.…
Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance by Joe Dunthorne
Scribner Review by Walter Cummins We imagine writers doing research as individuals behind a computer screen or in a library carrel surrounded by piles of books and documents, perhaps also…
The Danger to Be Sane: Creativity and the Eccentric Mind by Rosa Montero, translated by Lindsey Ford
Europa Review by Walter Cummins Novelist Rosa Montero opens this book with an admission that “I’ve always known something in the head didn’t work right,” then illustrates with her age…