Crown Review by Walter Cummins One of the frequent plaints that emerges when two or more people of my age get together is lamentation over what we’ve been forgetting, primarily…
Tag: Review by Walter Cummins
Take What You Need by Idra Novey
Viking Review by Walter Cummins The words of Idra Novey’s title, Take What You Need, suggest a sign scrawled on a heap of broken, useless stuff not worth a payment.…
Dog on Fire by Terese Svoboda
Nebraska Review by Walter Cummins Terese Svoboda opens Dog on Fire with the narrator trapped in a blinding storm: “Out of a storm so thick with dust, a storm so…
God’s Ex-Girlfriend: A Memoir about Loving and Leaving the Evangelical Jesus by Gloria Beth Amodeo
IG Publishing By Walter Cummins The title, God’s Ex-Girlfriend, suggests a Dear John letter to explain why the author broke up with the Campus Crusade for Christ and its evangelical…
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
(Random House) Review by Walter Cummins In his latest novel, ironically titled Victory City, Salman Rushdie appears to have pulled out all stops on his inventive powers as he dramatizes…
Foster by Claire Keegan
(Grove) Review by Walter Cummins While reading Claire Keegan’s impeccable novella, I couldn’t help thinking of the old saw about stray animals that wander into your yard: if you name…
And Finally: Matters of Life and Death by Henry Marsh
(St. Martin’s) Review by Walter Cummins The “finally” in Henry Marsh’s title refers to the clear signal that death awaits him. After seventy years of avoiding admission of that inevitability,…
Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us by Rachel Aviv
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Review by Walter Cummins Like Rachel Aviv, the people whose mental issues she explores in Strangers to Ourselves are driven to write, some with works that…
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
Review by Walter Cummins Rob Delaney doesn’t exploit the ironic connection of the title used for his four-season television series—Catastrophe—and this book about the sufferings and eventual death of his…
A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella
Review by Walter Cummins When I’m reviewing a book, I defer from reading other reviews until I’ve written my own to avoid influencing my reaction. But in the case of…