Notes from a Literary Lad
Hangsaman Shirley Jackson Penguin Classics Shirley Jackson’s second novel was first published in 1951; what is remarkable (not to say distressing) is how relevant its themes and situations appear to a reader in 2017. Hangsaman represents something of a departure
from The Redemption of Galen Pike In her masterful story “The Quiet,” Welsh writer Carys Davies displays, among other things, an effortless ability to manipulate her readers’ expectations. This manipulation involves a carefully calibrated modulation of tone and point of
This weekend, The Handmaid’s Tale made the Globe and Mail bestseller list. Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel is set in a future version of the U.S., which has become a totalitarian theocracy where women are enlisted into sexual slavery at the
The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests Chris Smith; foreword by Jon Stewart Grand Central Publishing Fake news seemed to take on a life of its own in 2016.
from The Stories of John Cheever First published in The New Yorker in 1949, “Christmas Is a Sad Season for the Poor” takes Cheever out of his suburban milieu and into the heart of New York City; atypically for the
from The Boat In yesterday’s Globe and Mail, the columnist John Semley recalls listening to an episode of the podcast In Our Time. The podcast convinced him to spend an afternoon rereading Animal Farm, George Orwell’s allegory about Stalin’s rise
from The Best of Joe R. Lansdale Even among horror fans, Texas novelist and short-story writer Joe R. Lansdale is something of a cult figure. He is arguably best known for the film adaptation of his short story “Bubba Ho-Tep,”
from Games with Greta and Other Stories Slovenian writer Suzana Tratnik, who was an instrumental figure in the 1980s LGBTQ movement in the former Yugoslavia, is an almost defiantly unsentimental writer. The stories in Games with Greta are urban and
Born to Run Bruce Springsteen Simon & Schuster On Sept. 23, 2016, Bruce Springsteen celebrated his 67th birthday. Just over two weeks earlier, on Sept. 7, the storied rock ’n’ roller, backed by the legendary E Street Band, broke the
Gloria Naylor, the Manhattan-born, Yale-educated author of novels such as The Women of Brewster Place, Linden Hills, and Mama Day has died at the age of 66. An obituary in The New York Times lists the cause of death as