In my spare time, when I am not reading manuscripts, I am reading a wonderful memoir called H is for Hawk by the English writer Helen Macdonald. The book distinguishes itself from most memoirs of grief because it focuses on an activity — falconry — and relies on this fascinating pastime to give the reader a profound understanding of the author’s loss of her beloved father. [Read more…]
Is The Girl On the Train the new Gone Girl?
I am rooting for the female novelists. If most of the die-hard novel readers are women, then surely women writers should always be occupying the top tier of the fiction best seller lists. They should be able to wrestle the #1 and #2 spots away from the likes of John Grisham and James Patterson. [Read more…]
Oliver Sacks, Artistic vision and Enlightenment
I recently posted on Twitter and Facebook an essay by Oliver Sacks that described his end-of-life struggles (invariable for us all), recounted with bittersweet resignation. Sacks expressed his gratitude for being given a life of rewarding work as well as the unusual aptitude to understand the complex, mysterious and often misconstrued workings of the human brain.