Tag Archives: novels

Is the Late David Rakoff the Alexander Pope of Novelists?

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Santi Tafarella

David Rakoff wrote a whole novel in sing-song rhyme, like a Dr. Seuss book, and it has just been posthumously published. Not sure I like it, but below is a sample. I do like this couplet late in the recording, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Inner Lives of Conservatives in Literature

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Santi Tafarella

When Mitt Romney loses the election today (as he almost certainly will), where in literature, aside from the Bible, might conservatives go to process that loss? James McGirk sees that processing coming most characteristically from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957). … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Philip Roth On The Novel Verses The Screen

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Santi Tafarella
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Do I Think of Ayn Rand?

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

I actually like Ayn Rand. I’m a liberal, and not an Objectivist, but I see liberal elements in her that are proper correctives to the extreme ideological directions sometimes taken by those on both the left and the right. And I owe … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

What’s Literature Good For?

Posted on July 20, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Sometimes people ask, “What’s the value of literature—of reading poems, stories, and plays? In other words, why might one go to literature for sustenance or reflection, as opposed to something else?” One of the reasons a person might “go to literature” is akin … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING: A Great George Orwell Novel That A Lot of People Don’t Know

Posted on March 12, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Below is an image of one of my favorite George Orwell novels. It’s the story of a poet who struggles with what to do with his life: Should he marry? Should he debase his gift for poetry by writing advertising copy … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Quote of the Day: “Got up. . . . Wrote book. Went out, bought bottle of wine. Came home, cooked dinner. Drank wine.”

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

From Michael Dirda’s review of Julian Barnes’s book, NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF: Beautifully done might also justly describe Nothing to Be Frightened Of. A friend once summed up Julian Barnes’s own daily existence: “Got up. . . . Wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

20 Years Later: Salmon Rushdie’s 1989 “Fatwah” in Retrospect

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Santi Tafarella

Twenty years ago, in 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeni declared a “fatwah” (a death sentence) on the British author Salmon Rushdie (for the publication of his novel, The Satanic Verses). The Guardian has an excellent retrospective article on the whole mad and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An Intellectual President: What Barack Obama Reads, and Has Read, Over His Lifetime

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

Given Rush Limbaugh’s rather scurrilous attempts to paint Obama as someone stupid and shallow, I thought it might be important to revisit the issue of Obama’s reading habits as an adult, and what those habits say about him. Back in July, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Today’s Happy Thought: Ernest Hemingway on Happy Endings

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Santi Tafarella

In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, Death in the Afternoon, a woman tells a man that she likes happy endings. The man replies: All endings are the same if you tell them long enough.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment