book reviews, opinions and fun by Norm Sigurdson
Poet and punk rocker Patti Smith's Devotion is an odd little book, a rather precious affair that is hard to classify and, for me at least, hard to love or even like. I did love her first memoir, Just Kids, her account of her relationship with the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe, which won the National …
I would hesitate to call it literature but Ayn Rand's 1168 page opus Atlas Shrugged, which was published on October 10, 1957, has certainly had an impact as out-sized as its physical bulk. It has influenced generations of conservatives, libertarians, "Objectivists" and various cranks. It debuted at #13 on the New York Times bestseller list …
"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken." -Albert Camus
Edgar Allan Poe's final poem "Annabel Lee" was first published on October 9, 1849, two days after Poe's death at the age of forty. It was published in The New York Daily Tribune as part of an obituary by Poe's literary executor Rufus Griswold. Poe's death still remains a mystery, but it seems most likely …
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Brother is David Chariandy's second novel and like his debut novel Soucouyant (2007) it is set in Scarborough, the multi-ethnic east Toronto suburb that Chariandy grew up in, described by the narrator of Brother as "a suburb that had mushroomed up and yellowed, browned, and blackened into life." Soucouyant was on the Scotiabank Giller Prize …
The Waves by Virginia Woolf was published on October 8, 1931. Woolf would take her own life by drowning ten years later, at the age of 59, and The Waves would be her final major work. It has been described as more of a prose poem than a novel, consisting of soliloquies from the six …
“There is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.” -Maya Angelou
Clive James, the Anglo-Australian essayist, cultural critic, poet, television host and bon vivant, was born in Sydney, Australia, on October 7, 1939. His first name at birth was Vivian but he says that after Vivian Leigh starred in Gone With the Wind, Vivian came to be considered a primarily female name and his parents let …
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Edward St. Aubyn's Dunbar is the latest addition to Hogarth Press's Shakespeare project that commissions prominent authors to write contemporary novels based rather loosely on the bard's plays. Margaret Atwood, Howard Jacobson, Ann Tyler and Jo Nesbo among others have already had their takes on the plays. In Dunbar St. Aubyn takes a crack at …
The British novelist Graham Greene was born on October 2, 1904. He is often considered to be a "Catholic writer" (although he didn't like that label) because his books usually hinge on questions of guilt, sin and possible redemption. He was interested in morality and personal responsibility and usually explored them in stories that displayed …
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The American writer Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His name at birth was Truman Streckfus Persons. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother later married a rather dodgy Cuban businessman named Joe Capote, who adopted Truman and gave him his new surname. When I was …
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"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today." - Thich Nhat Hanh
The novelist Carson McCullers died 50 years ago today, on September 29, 1967, from a brain hemorrhage. She was only 50 years old but had suffered from serious health issues most of her life, including rheumatic fever, a series of strokes that left her paralyzed on her left side, alcoholism and severe depression. McCullers attempted …
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Today is National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The day of poetry readings and promotions began in 1994. Every year there is a different theme. The theme for 2017 is Freedom. Here's poet and songwriter Jack Slater reciting his poem "Freedom" to celebrate the day! https://youtu.be/vpNLOyOUX1I
George Green died In the tiny rural community of Ettrick, North Carolina, near Raleigh, in 1902. He was known to be a hard worker and he and his wife were considered to be good neighbours and upstanding members of the community. But, when Green's body was being prepared for burial his friends were baffled to …
Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the novelist and short story writer Louis Auchincloss, on September 27, 1917. He died in 2010 at the age of 92. I have been an Auchincloss fan for years and have always been puzzled by the fact that he never became more famous than he did. …
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"It is criminal to steal a purse, daring to steal a fortune, a mark of greatness to steal a crown. The blame diminishes as the guilt increases." -Friedrich Schiller
I watched some of the Canada150 festivities from Parliament Hill on television this past Canada Day. I particularly wanted to see Gordon Lightfoot perform, which he did with evident glee. Justin Trudeau reminded the crowd that Lightfoot had performed on that very spot 50 years ago, for Canada's centennial celebration in 1967. Lightfoot, who will …
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T.S. Eliot, the great poet, playwright and publisher, was born on September 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Missouri. He moved to England at the age of 25, eventually renouncing his American citizenship and becoming a British citizen. In 1925 Eliot (Tom to his friends) began working as an editor at the publishing house that would …
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A Loving Faithful Animal is a striking debut novel by Josephine Rowe, who has published collections of short stories and poetry in her native Australia. It opens on a hot dry New Years Eve in 1990 in Victoria State with a poor rural family struggling with endings and beginings. Jack Burroughs, a violent Vietnam War …
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