Riches of the Lowlands in Rembrandt’s time
Rembrandt’s Holland by Larry Silver My rating: 3 of 5 stars This will no doubt be a helpful starting point for anyone interested in discovering how so much artistic and intellectual accomplishment could arise in 17th century Netherlands. Unfortunately it is written in a scholastic prose that sucks the life from a story so full … read more »
Back to the blog
In case anybody has been wondering about my long blog silence, the reason is that I was putting all my writing energy into completing my novel THE BOOKBINDER. It was a challenge to work out the conclusion of such a complex story and took longer than I had hoped, but it’s done and off to … read more »
Art: And what is it for?
[ I’ve been too busy with other projects — mainly, completing my current novel — to post anything new. Here, I re-post an old note that a reader just brought to my attention, from my earlier blog “Literature & Society”. To see it in its original form, click on What is art? And what’s it … read more »
Imaginary journeys
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino My rating: 4 of 5 stars Kublai Khan is the ruler of an empire too vast for him to imagine, so he enlists the young Venetian, Marco Polo, a reknowned traveler, to describe to him the cities he has visited. It is possible that the great Khan’s empire exists only … read more »
Journey to nowhere
Voyage au bout de la nuit by Louis-Ferdinand Céline My rating: 5 of 5 stars Ferdinand Bardamu begins his journey to nowhere at age twenty when, caught up in the enthusiasm of a marching band, he joins the army — in 1914. He recounts for us his panic and disgust in the bloody, muddy warfare … read more »