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Updates Regarding Bookbread
Covid 2019-2021+ (as well as the Texas February “Snovid 2021”) really threw a wrench into my habits with this blog. I hope now to get back to reviewing mostly short stories, and occasional crumbs of...
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Short Story Review: “Child” (2017) by Nicole I. Nesca
Nicole I. Nesca’s Let It Bleed (Screamin’ Skull Press, 2017) is a book of prose and poetry—of verse, vignettes, as well as short stories—and a book both Canadian and American. In it readers will find...
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The Need to Reread, via John Wilson (& Others)
I keep thinking about this great piece by editor John Wilson from back in July on his method of rereading. It reminded me of some other proverbs for rereading that I continue to ponder: It consoles me...
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Bach’s Art of the Fugue (and its Counterpoint)
Really digging Bach and counterpoint these last few weeks, good logical to stuff to read something like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to, etc. The post Bach’s Art of the Fugue (and its...
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Literary Impressionism: no. 1 The Idea of “Waiting” in French Literature
“What to do in Casablanca?” Much of Sartre’s novel Le Sursis (The Reprieve), (c. 1945), set in 1938, follows the line at the beginning of Casablanca (1942), regarding the refugees. They “wait… and...
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Lévi-Strauss: a Recent Assessment
My experience with Levi-Strauss agrees largely with this assessment via @tnajournal : he was deeply read with occasional flashes of brilliance, yet his readers must mine many a ¶ before they get to...
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Tenderness: A Writer’s Tool
Lately I’ve noticed when reading some recent works of fiction occasional moments which can only be called (at least to my mind) “tenderness.” As a reader it seems you either catch them or you don’t....
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When Nothing’s Not New and Everything’s Always Random
Some Recent Encounters with Surrealism in Contemporary Literature I. I recently reread the Surrealist Manifesto (1924), a habit which, it seems, occurs every five to ten years. So it was fresh on my...
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Some Newish Advice for Writers, with the Aid of Chris Arnade
The language he used was that of a man who was sick and tired of the world he lived in—though he had much liking for his fellow men—and had resolved, for his part, to have no truck with injustice and...
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In Defence of Les Femmes Françaises
I am very glad to my essay “In Defence of Les Femmes Françaises” out by Fortnightly Review. It uses French literature of the past to explain French beauty at present, with aid from Balzac, Camus,...
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Writing that Spits in Your Face: Give It To Me.
“Your life, won’t be worth spit!” ––Jack Palance to Jack Nicholson, Batman (1989) I want more writing that spits in my face. Stuff that makes me squirm—not tear-jerk so much as truth-jerk. I mean the...
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My Best Read for 2021: Short Story Review of “The Feast” by Mark Marchenko...
My Best Read for 2021: Short Story Review of “The Feast” by Mark Marchenko (2020) After spending a month brooding on what I’ve read over the past year, I’ve determined that Mark Marchenko’s “The...
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Book Review: “Coyote Songs” (2018) by Gabino Iglesias
Book Review: “Coyote Songs” (2018) by Gabino Iglesias I don’t read a lot of horror, but occasionally I find myself gandering afield. So I feel confident enough to claim Gabino Iglesias’s novel Coyote...
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Write Word, Right Word, Wrong Word, Onward
Write Word, Right Word, Wrong Word, Onward A comparison on word usage and how the usage comes before the word gets spoken/written: First, from our pal Emerson (1803-1882): No man can write well who...
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What Dreams May Come After Awakening? Review of Colson Whitehead’s “The...
The Elgonyi, natives of the Elgon forests, of central Africa, explained to me that there are two kinds of dreams: the ordinary dream of the little man, and the ‘big vision’ that only the great man...
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Russian Reading List (March 2022)
Here are approximately 125 online items about the Russian security issue (an informal hobby of mine) that I’ve happened to have read in the last 5 years. Due to link-rot, some on the links may not...
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Sally Rooney and Sherlock Holmes: Romance and Exhaustion
SALLY ROONEY AND SHERLOCK HOLMES: ROMANCE AND EXHAUSTION (Consider the following to be a supportive response to Mary Ann Sieghart’s “Why Are So Many Men Still Resistant to Reading Women?” at Literary...
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Short Story Review: “Octopus” (2022) by Nathan Willis
SHORT STORY REVIEW: “OCTOPUS” (2022) BY NATHAN WILLIS In Nathan Willis’s short story “Octopus” (Necessary Fiction, Feb. 16, 2022) the reader must confront randomness. There’s some seemingly radical...
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“This Poor Nomad,” Or: Fist Fight at the Corona Corral
“THIS POOR NOMAD,” OR: FIST FIGHT AT THE CORONA CORRAL ACT I Actually, I missed the start of this story but heard it commenced around one o’clock in the afternoon when a nomad wisecracker drifted in...
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25 Years of Bookbread Left to Go
Bookbread has been around for about 10 years. Its author will be turning 41 this summer. The male ancestors in the author’s family tend not to live past 75. And there is much demographic data to...
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