Norton Review by Walter Cummins Andre Dubus III explores his vulnerabilities throughout the essays in this collection. Despite his literary regard and economic success as a writer and university teacher…
Tag: Review by Walter Cummins
The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella
Scribner Review by Walter Cummins As he demonstrated in his first two novels, Ethan Joella possesses a special ability to create a community of interrelated characters, each of whom is…
American Outrage: A Testamentary by H. L. Hix
BlazeVOX Review by Walter Cummins With every page of American Outrage—with every listing of the name of a person killed by gun violence, with every accumulating fact about guns in…
Soul, Ghost, My Absolute by Rosalind Palermo Stevenson
Rain Mountain Review by Walter Cummins In her piece “The Foghorn,” Rosalind Palermo Stevenson includes several of her own translations of Antonin Artaud, including, “The dream is true. All dreams…
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
Harper Review by Walter Cummins My approach to The Light Eaters differs from those who have praised the book for its presentation of the latest findings about plant behavior, including…
The Morningside by Téa Obreht
Random House Review by Walter Cummins The pleasure of reading The Morningside is engaging with the inventive creations of Téa Obreht’s impressive imagination. The frustration is not getting a developed…
Roxy and Coco by Terese Svoboda
West Virginia Review by Walter Cummins My fine feathered friends. That phrase, dating back to the 1500s, occurred to me after I read Terese Svoboda’s novel Roxy and Coco. The…
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins We’ve all probably witnessed similar scenes afternoons when school is out, middle schoolers gathered in groups, all fixated on their smartphone screens and ignoring each…
Passport Photos by Amitava Kumar
California Review by Walter Cummins A tangle of borders dominates Amitava Kumar’s Passport Photos. The most obvious are the boundaries between nations that require verification of a small booklet to…
American Spirits by Russell Banks
Knopf Review by Walter Cummins It may be me, but I find the three stories of Russell Banks’ posthumous American Spirits collection to be examples of gallows humor despite the…