I’m one of those writers who does a lot of it my head, often late at night while I’m trying to go to sleep. As I toss and turn, I craft ingenious plots and dazzling metaphors — really great stuff. The only problem is that my head is not a leak-proof vessel. Most of the time, I stumble out of bed the next morning to find that […]
The worst book I’ve read this year …
… is “A Small Death in Lisbon” by Robert Wilson. Actually, it’s not the worst — that distinction goes to Harlen Coben’s dreadful “Promise Me” — I just liked the best-worst symmetry of this and the preceding post. Still, I didn’t much like this book. While I admire the author’s ambition and research, this is one of those yarns where meticulous geographic detail actually undermines the story. […]
The best book I’ve read this year …
… is Martin Cruz Smith’s “Stalin’s Ghost.” The morose and laconic Arkady Renko returns for the sixth time since his debut in the brilliant “Gorky Park” of 1982. This time he’s back in Moscow, which has changed a great deal in 25 years. It’s a city where the excesses of capitalism and corruption have engendered an odd nostalgia for the days of Stalinist Russia — even as […]
Speaking of crime writing …
… I’m still not sure if I like David Chase’s jerk-out-the-plug ending of The Sopranos. Yes, I was one of the thousands who thought my cable had cut out at the worst possible moment. But before I was able to start cursing the hardware, the credits began to roll. Huh? Was that it? Guess so. The best television series ever made died as it lived: on the […]