“The Secret History”
It is easy to see things in retrospect. but I was ignorant then of everything but my own happiness, and I don’t know what else to say except that life itself seemed very magical in those days: a web of symbol, coincidence, premonition, omen. Everything, somehow, fit together; some sly and benevolent Providence was revealing itself by degrees ….
While J.D. Salinger revealed the tortured soul of a teenager in an exclusive private school in Catcher in the Rye, it is Donna Tartt who opens our eyes to young adulthood when she takes the reader into the underworld of a small liberal arts college in The Secret History. Published in 1992, 41 years after Catcher in the Rye, The Secret History tells the story of six young adults at a liberal arts college (the fictional Hampden College in Vermont – not unlike the college Tartt attended: Bennington College in Vermont): Read more 
“The Days of Abandonment”
Already at eighteen, I had considered myself a talented young woman, with high hopes. At twenty, I was working. At twenty-two I had Mario, and we had left Italy, living first in Canada, then in Spain and Greece. At twenty-eight, I had had Gianni, and during the months of my pregnancy I had written a long story set in Naples, and, the following year, had published it easily. At thirty-one I gave birth to Ilaria. Now at thirty-eight I was reduced to nothing.
“This Is Where I Leave You”
When someone says “literature makes my heart sing,” I sense a kindred soul. Readers fall in love with literature and the passion turns into an addiction that borders on compulsion but every once in a while a diversion beckons in the form of a hilariously funny book that makes me laugh so hard I’m afraid I might embarrass myself. That’s what This Is Where I Leave You did to me (after the first chapter I made sure I wasn’t drinking anything for fear it would come out my nose in a snort of laughter). In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read a funnier book in my life. If a literary prize were to be given for comical fiction, this book would win hands down. I can’t even think of a runner-up…..well maybe Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, which was notoriously entertaining but not belly laughing funny like This Is Where I Leave You. Read more
“The Soul of All Living Creatures”
Evolution favors the wolf who focuses on what matters most: finding food, remaining healthy, resting, breeding, caring for young – not confronting and dominating others. The same is true for all species.
Several weeks ago, the New York Times Magazine published “Zoo Animals And Their Discontents,” an article about Dr. Vint Virga, a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who tends to the psychological welfare of animals in captivity. Virga is to zoo animals what Freud, Frankl, and Jung were to humans. So, when an animal in captivity displays anxiety, depression, phobias, obsessive-compulsive behavior and other maladies, Virga is called in to diagnose and treat the afflicted animal. Read more
“The Brothers”
One way to bring Americans to reflect on their past – and future – would be to revive memory of the Dulles brothers. Their actions frame the grand debate over America’s role in the world that has never been truly joined in the United States.
“My Struggle: Book 1”
My father was an idiot, I wanted nothing to do with him, and it cost me nothing to keep well away from him. It wasn’t a question of keeping away from something, it was a question of the something not existing; nothing about him touched me. That was how it had been, but then I had sat down to write, and the tears poured forth.
In Norway, revealing personal information and family secrets is considered shameful so when Karl Ove Knausgaard, the award-winning, best-selling author wrote a 6 volume autobiographical account of his life, the public took notice, read the critics’ reviews but ultimately decided to buy the books. Read more
“The Little Friend”
…it was Christmas, there was a new baby in the house, everybody was happy and thought they would be happy forever.
Harriet Cleve Dufresnes had just entered the world as the third child of Charlotte and Dixon Cleve. Four months later, while baby Harriett was strapped in her swing on the front porch with her 4-year old sister, Allison playing nearby, 9-year old Robin was found hung from the tupelo tree in the front yard while the rest of the family was in the house setting up the table for a Mother’s Day celebration. No one saw or heard a thing. Read more
“Niki: The Story of a Dog”
Affection is not only a pleasure for the heart but also a burden which, in proportion to its importance, may oppress the soul quite as much as it rejoices it.
Long before books like Marley or The Art of Racing in the Rain appeared on bookshelves, a book entitled Niki: The Story of a Dog was written in Hungarian by Tibor Déry and published in 1956, shortly before the October Uprising, a nationwide revolt against the Soviet-controlled government in Hungary. In the years following World War II, Hungary underwent massive political changes and it is these changes the reader sees through the eyes of the narrator who tells the story of a middle-aged couple who adopt a street dog named Niki. The story begins in the Spring of 1948 and ends six years later in 1954. Read more
“Life and Times of Michael K”
The Life and Times of Michael K was written more than 30 years ago (1983) by J.M. Coetzee and yet, the story is as relevant today as decades ago. Freedom from both persecution and charity are the overriding themes of this fictional story that takes place in South Africa when the minority Black South Africans were fighting against apartheid during a civil war. The years are irrelevant as the timeframe could be any decade and any place where there is one set of rules for the majority in power and another set for the oppressed minority class. Read more
“What You’ve Been Missing”
Never judge a book by its cover…..
The cover art of What You’ve Been Missing is a painting by Roger Brown called It’s a Wonderful Lie and is as telling as the short story collection written by Janet Desaulniers. A rectangular piece of art divided into eight sections, It’s a Wonderful Lie depicts life as we live and the impending disaster ahead: we come together and marry; we divorce and part; we enjoy a drive in a convertible and unexpectedly get hit by a truck; we run our businesses and we go to jail; and finally, we exercise and strengthen our bodies only to succumb to death. Read more
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