Month: September 2022

A great many post-apocalyptic novels have been published in recent decades. Only a few of them show us how humankind will face the curtain—true, honest books without zombies or implausible mini-societies or far-fetched ease of survival. This is one of them—possibly the best ever in …

Jake Brigance, the lawyer from A Time to Kill, is back, and this time he’s representing an estate, not a killer. A Mississippi tycoon has committed suicide and left his millions to his African-American housekeeper. A lot of local whites don’t like this. A platoon …

Two exotic page turners from the South Seas mists of yesteryear. While Stevenson is remembered for other works, these two novellas are great examples of stories from an era when mass-market entertainment didn’t shy away from weighty themes. Colonialism, economic exploitation and free will intertwine …

Forget the CBS comedy series of the same title. The play that inspired it exists on a higher plane. Unlike Letts’ darker and better-known plays, this one is a bit of a bonbon—a heart-warmer with an optimistic soul. The story: an ageing white doughnut shop …

There’s no joy in giving a book a bad review, but sometimes the book is so bad that it would be literary malpractice not to. The third book in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy was published back in 1999 to mixed reviews, which is surprising because …

An autobiography by the veteran BBC News foreign correspondent. Simpson takes us on his journey into Kabul after the fall of the Taliban, then waxes eloquent on the topic of Capital J Journalism. The high points are his riffs on the concept of journalistic objectivity …

The first novel by the L.A. barfly who became one of America’s most prolific poets. Few writers are more imitated, and few books are funnier and faster from start to finish. Politically correct readers need not peruse. Bukowski delights in offending the offendable (and goes …

In the sequel to The Shining, little Danny Torrance is all grown up and trying to stay off the bottle. He still has the shining, as does twelve-year-old Abra, who’s being targeted by vampiric immortals who want to suck out her magical essence and stash …

This slim volume has two parts: a memoir on King’s early years and a how-to section for aspiring authors. The former is pure enjoyment—King at his conversational best—while the latter is an entertaining read but thin on advice. There are better how-to books out there, …

Any review of Thompson’s work is morally obliged to linger over the phrase “gonzo journalism,” but this book is so much more than that. Underneath the coke and blotter acid, away from the mad dash around the desert, is a mini-treatise on the “brutish reality …