322. (William Gaddis)

My initial reaction to The Recognitions, on my second reading of the novel, was captured in the post I wrote … More

321. (William Empson)

William Empson’s brilliance as a reader is more immediate than his brilliance as a critic. The line between the two … More

320. (William Gaddis)

Re-reading William Gaddis’ The Recognitions, I come closer to understanding what Empson meant when he bucked against the post-Eliot neo-Christian … More

317. (Derek Mahon)

Derek Mahon died on 1 October 2020. I’ve written about his poetry before—it’s Lucretian or Ovidian spirit—and going back to … More

315. (John Berryman)

The fifth section of John Berryman’s The Dream Songs, song 92, “Room 231: the fourth week”, opens with Henry in … More

314. (Yves Bonnefoy)

As a translator of Shakespeare into French, Yves Bonnefoy has reckoned with the chasm separating the French and English poetic … More

312. (Sebastian Rödl)

Whenever I write here on the work of the philosopher Sebastian Rödl, as I have done several times before, I … More

311. (Patrick Chamoiseau)

Patrick Chamoiseau’s novels take their form from the primacy of orality, but with the recognition—expressed most clearly at the close … More

310. (Toni Morrison)

Song of Solomon is among the twentieth-century masterpieces that draws from the stock of devices associated with Dickens and finds entirely … More

309. (Toni Morrison)

“Spiteful” is a shocking word, seeming too small, too intimate. But then it is the right word for the novel, … More