From George Eliot, “Middlemarch”

May 23, 2013 By

This was not the first time that Mr. Bulstrode had begun by admonishing Mr. Vincy, and had ended by seeing a very unsatisfactory reflection of himself in the coarse unflattering mirror which that manufacturer’s mind presented to the subtler lights and shadows of his fellow-men; and perhaps his experience ought to have warned him how [...]

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“All-Weather Friends”: me on Wallace Stegner

May 21, 2013 By

at Acculturated: All three novels of marriage I’ve looked at so far have a certain sense of the privacy of marriage, which can become isolation. In fact, the focus has narrowed with each novel: Extended family and community are essential parts of Kristin Lavransdatter, but its heart remains with Kristin’s marriage and home; the isolation [...]

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So Many Steps to Death: Revisiting “Brideshead Revisited”

May 21, 2013 By

Hey, so I read Brideshead Revisited again. I was in college the first time. Probably read the entire book drunk. Can’t think of a better introduction to it! Anyway, here are some scattered thoughts on re-reading it, all of which are ridiculously spoilerous. Seriously, if you haven’t read it, SKIP THIS POST and just go [...]

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Nun Is the Loneliest Number: “Black Narcissus”

May 20, 2013 By

Last week I saw 1947′s Powell & Pressburger convent fever dream Black Narcissus. It’s set in the high, windswept mountain peaks of India (with requisite “half devil and half child” native caricatures, so just know that going in–I really liked the blunt old lady though), where an iron-spined young Anglican nun played by Deborah Kerr [...]

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“No Place to Stand”: I review “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”

May 16, 2013 By

at AmCon: Both the title and the trailer of Mira Nair’s “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” (now playing in DC at the E Street Cinema and Bethesda Row Cinema) suggest that this will be the story of how a man becomes a fundamentalist: how a young-gun New York financier, humiliated and mistreated after 9/11, turns his back [...]

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“Crime and Punishment: Juvenile Offenders Study Russian Literature”: Washington Post

May 14, 2013 By

via Ratty, I think: Kaufman thinks Russian literature is — unexpectedly — a particularly good fit for prisoners. The authors often asked what they called “the accursed questions,” Kaufman said: “Who am I? Why am I here? Given I’m going to die, how should I live?” more

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From “Brideshead Revisited”

May 14, 2013 By

“I think you are very fond of Sebastian,” she said. “Why, certainly.” “I know of these romantic friendships of the English and the Germans. They are not Latin. I think they are very good if they do not go on too long.”

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Probably from “Sculpting in Time: The Great Russian Filmmaker Discusses His Art”

May 10, 2013 By

“What is art?,” asked Tarkovsky. “Like a declaration of love: the consciousness of our dependence on each other. A confession. An unconscious act that none the less reflects the true meaning of life—love and sacrifice.” –I found it here

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“7 Konigsburg Takes”: Leah Libresco

April 26, 2013 By

in honor of the late EL Konigsburg.

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“Prodigals and Preachers”: me on Marilynne Robinson

April 22, 2013 By

at Acculturated: This is the halfway point for my series of posts on great novels about marriage, and with this third installment I think I see some intertwined themes emerging. All three of the books so far—Kristin Lavransdatter, How to Be Good, and now Marilynne Robinson’s generational Iowa epic-in-miniature Gilead—are also stories about being sorry, [...]

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