In the end, we choose our point, arbitrarily: “A period, a dot of punctuation, a point of stasis.” Atwood reminds us that the story could easily end elsewhere, that endings are random, and that, for her protagonists (but not for…
Tag: fiction
A review of Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft
In terms of intention it succeeds brilliantly and the intention is no paltry one. It explores a dark world of a man who was a difficult tortured child and never escaped that childhood. His failure to generate love among any…
A Review of Youth by J.M. Coetzee
. The story is tortuous because it reminds its readers of something that seems to go hand and hand with youth – the desire for glory, for greatness, for artistic achievement and admiration without the tedious work of application. John…
A review of Herb ‘n’ Lorna by Eric Kraft
This shift of chronological focus is similar to that found in Little Follies. There the opening stories carry Peter from toddler to a young boy of almost nine. Time then becomes elastic and – as in this book – turns…
A review of The Enigma of Arrival by VS Naipaul
Neither memoir nor story, the descriptive detail is fine, but it lacks any overall movement, is slow going and painful to read, and ultimately leaves the reader with nothing more than a brief impression of the mental state of the…
A review of One Note Symphonies by Sean Brijbasi
Brijbasi makes connections that have nothing do with sequence of events or prominence of character. It is, in fact, juxtaposition that rules. Nothing is placed next to another in the way that you would expect but each element is very…
Imagination, or, The Delicate Art of Eric Kraft
The Delicate Art of Eric Kraft The cumulative effect of Kraft’s work is of a sober humor that refuses easy answers however much self-indulgence may appear on the surface. The latter becomes the lie of art by which we come…
A Review of In Arcadia by Ben Okri
A Review of Inflating a Dog by Eric Kraft
In the business of juggling disparate elements and merging apparently irreconcilable positions, Kraft has few equals. Many writers that have provided less have been better known. Even though Kraft’s novels are a guilty pleasure and despite the trappings of Proust…
A Review of Growing Young by Dean Warren
Dean Warren’s newest book, Growing Young, proves once again that he is a master of this writing genre. He writes of a futuristic society while weaving in facts of things happening in our own time; scientific and genetic research, unemployment,…