Books, Inq. — The Epilogue

In case you wondered ……

2026-05-31T10:58:12.495-04:00

…, THE TOP 10 CLASSIC DETECTIVE NOVELS, ACCORDING TO JEFFREY ARCHER (Hat tip, Jon Caroulis)

Change of address

2026-05-30T19:23:46.162-04:00

… for Cynthia Haven's blpg: The Book Haven

John Updike

2026-05-24T14:35:18.150-04:00

I didn't think too much -- as I recall -- of Rabbit, Run, but now, having returned to Updike, and having finished Rabbit Redux, let me take that all back: at his prime, Updike packed a serious punch. Much, of course, has been written about Updike, but I'd like to focus, in this post, on the quotation from the Sunday Times on the back of the British edition of the novel. That quotation attempts to sell Updike's vision as one in which he "transfigures the commonplace" into something "beautiful." Let's stop there: I don't read Rabbit Redux in that way at all. In fact, I understand the novel as attempting to assert the opposite: namely that there's an unbearable banality to the commonplace, and that boredom and sexuality are what propel the suburban experience in America. Rabbit Redux is less a celebration of the average, the mediocre, and far more an evaluation of the ways they persist, of how they interact. There's lots of intercourse in Updike's world, but much of it is pained; rarely is it ecstatic -- as you might expect from a marketing quotation like the one on the Penguin edition. Rabbit Redux, despite the sales pitch, really is a triumph: a sorrowful, hip, urgent novel composed at the intersection of many worlds: those racial, those violent, those political. The book is a reminder that even the most common moments are subject to external factors, and that while sex may bring two people together, it is rarely enough for them to truly communicate.

A poem for this morning …

2026-05-12T09:51:13.753-04:00

… Birds ( Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

2026-05-12T08:40:16.567-04:00

…^Carolyn Kizer — On Rising from the Dead

A poem for this. Morning …

2026-05-11T09:09:00.001-04:00

… Grady Chambers — Lost Glass

A song of praise …

2026-05-08T11:24:00.005-04:00

… Sara Teasdale, ‘May Day’ (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this morning …

2026-05-08T10:03:00.005-04:00

… Antarah ibn Shaddād — “I didn’t start this …

A poem for this morning …

2026-04-26T10:12:00.000-04:00

… Unknown —=The Moon that fell from heaven

Robert Walser

2026-04-23T16:23:00.003-04:00

Robert Walser came to me by way of my enduring interest in W. G. Sebald. Indeed, Sebald identified Walser as a primary influence, pointing to his stories -- Walser's stories -- as an unusual mixture of the historical, the nature, and the "small."

Published as a collection of vignettes composed on either side of the First World War, The Walk functions as a series of, in Walser's words, loosely connected "sketches." The pieces here are "short chapters" drawn from a range of imagined novels: or perhaps from a single novel. Either way, as Walser makes clear, the only novel he is truly developing -- that is, consistently developing -- is the "book of himself."

I must say, despite the praise, The Walk left me confounded: I did not enjoy Walser's prose, and I have trouble following his stories. This may have been because of their disjointed quality: they do not always build on each other, and so the effect is of reading the fragment of one story, followed by the fragment of another. And the style, too, left me frustrated: there are moments when Walser writes with unyielding complexity; but there were others when his prose are almost ethereal, barely hanging on.

For me, The Walk seemed to always be searching for the next aphorism, for the next piece of intellectual beauty. And sometimes Walser delivers. But at others, it's tough going, and the result, despite engaging content, and a focus on history's repeated intrusions -- is a collection with only, for me, a faint pulse.

"All the songs of singing birds heard by people such a long, long time ago!"

A poem for this morning …

2026-04-23T08:57:00.001-04:00

… Today’s Poem: A Fairy Song

For this mornng …

2026-04-19T11:13:00.001-04:00

… Poem in the Shape of the War

Remembering Petrarch …

2026-04-11T18:12:00.003-04:00

… Poetry Review: The Sound of Sighs Restored — A.M. Juster’s New “Canzoniere (Hat tip, Dave Lull)

A poem for this norning …

2026-04-11T08:41:00.001-04:00

… Bruce Andrews — Poem

A poem for this morning …

2026-04-09T10:18:00.000-04:00

… Alice Oswald — Riddle

A poem for this morning …

2026-04-07T09:46:00.000-04:00

… April — by Sara Teasdale

Q&A

2026-04-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

… A chat with Marie NDiaye

To the moon …

2026-04-02T21:34:00.001-04:00

… America takes steps toward a return to the Moon

A poet worth remembering …

2026-03-31T10:20:00.006-04:00

… 'Perhaps Even Pleasure in Difference' (Hat tip. Dave Lull) i wrote a piece about Cunningham many years ago. He saw it and wrote to me and said it was nice to be praised for the things one woukd like to be praised for. i must read him again.

A poem for this morning …

2026-03-31T09:11:00.004-04:00

… Patricia Goedicke — Though It Looks Like a Throat It Is Not

Things worth remembering …

2026-03-30T09:54:00.000-04:00

… Maxims and Meta-Maxims

A poem fo this morning …

2026-03-30T09:46:00.001-04:00

… Philip Lamantia — Thorn of the Air

RIP …

2026-03-29T09:59:00.001-04:00

… Remembering Alexander Kluge (1932–2026)

A poem for this motning …

2026-03-28T09:03:00.003-04:00

… Charles Wright — The Southern Cross

A classic poem …

2026-03-26T09:32:00.002-04:00

… Today’s Poem: March (Hat tip, Dave Lull)