About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Matthew Desmond
Positive The Los Angeles Review of Books He rounds up some of the usual suspects, such as Republicans and bankers. At the same time, he reserves a lot of blame for his peers, the kind of people who are likely to buy his book ... He rounds up some of the usual suspects, such as Republicans and bankers. At the same time, he reserves a lot of blame for his peers, the kind of people who are likely to buy his book ... Sobering.
Marilynne Robinson
Positive The National Book Review ... an evocative and suggestive idea. It also shows up unannounced two-thirds of the way through the novel, rather than running as a theme through the whole story. Although structure has never been Robinson’s main concern, at times Jack meanders. For instance, the first scene is a tight six pages on the aftermath of Jack and Della’s disastrous first date The second scene is 70 pages of them talking in a graveyard. The universe of this novel could use a bit more fine-tuning ... But few read Marilynne Robinson’s novels for plot or social commentary. She belongs to the American tradition of visionary Protestantism (and post-Protestantism) that runs from John Cotton and Jonathan Edwards to Emerson, Melville, and Whitman. Their stylistic extravagance and metaphysical daring all makes sense in light of (Robinson’s understanding of) \'Calvin’s metaphor—nature is a shining garment in which God is revealed and concealed.\' There is no register too exalted to do creation justice ... There are plenty of revelatory moments.
Elena Ferrante
Positive The National Book Review Does it veer toward melodrama? At times. But credit where it’s due: Ferrante lives up to her own billing. Who else’s prose could bear comparison with a volcano? ... Ferrante’s female narrators[\']...personalities are unstable, even fluid, and defy settled definitions, not least of all their own. Not all of Ferrante’s characters are so enticingly mysterious. As a rule, Ferrante’s lower-class men are oversexed, unfaithful, physically abusive, emotionally needy, and incompetent lovers to boot ... the hot-blooded Italian cafone is a bit of a stock figure. The predictability of Ferrante’s men saps some of the heat from her stories, and a righteous cliché is still a cliché ... The Lying Life of Adults is recognizably a portrait of the artist as a young woman. She has the storyteller’s power: she can tell lies that enchant and delight, rather than harm.
Michel Houellebecq, Trans. by Shaun Whiteside
Mixed The National Book Review Without much in the way of plot, Serotonin is mostly a platform for Florent-Claude’s reminiscences and musings. Sometimes he’s funny...He makes a few astute observations about French society, too ... On the whole, though, moments of insight and humor in Serotonin are too few and far between. As usual, Houellebecq devotes pages and pages to vulgar descriptions of sex ... There are also episodes of beastiality and pedophilia, which seem calculated to shock and therefore don’t. The bigger problem is that Florent-Claude doesn’t seem interested in thinking too hard about his old relationship with Camille, why it mattered to him, and why he lost it. His mind wanders around like he himself wanders over the French countryside: never getting anywhere ... But then why bother to tell us about it? Perhaps it’s an exercise in fitting form to content. A numb and distracted narrator tells a numb and distracted story. But if so, then Houellebecq the novelist pays a price ... It’s hard not to feel about the novel the way Florent-Claude feels about his life: it should have been better ... Still, Houellebecq is always worth reading because he confronts his readers with fundamental questions ... Houellebecq’s pessimism is so deep and relentless that he seems to be taunting us, all but daring us to draw different conclusions.
Michel Houellebecq, Trans. by Shaun Whiteside
Mixed The Nation Michel Houellebecq might be the most brilliant and maddening French writer alive. Bleak, pessimistic, and full of black humor ... Without much in the way of plot, Serotonin is mostly a platform for Florent-Claude’s reminiscences and musings. Sometimes he’s funny...He makes a few astute observations about French society, too ... On the whole, though, moments of insight and humor in Serotonin are too few and far between. As usual, Houellebecq devotes pages and pages to vulgar descriptions of sex ... There are also episodes of beastiality and pedophilia, which seem calculated to shock and therefore don’t. The bigger problem is that Florent-Claude doesn’t seem interested in thinking too hard about his old relationship with Camille, why it mattered to him, and why he lost it. His mind wanders around like he himself wanders over the French countryside: never getting anywhere ... Perhaps it’s an exercise in fitting form to content. A numb and distracted narrator tells a numb and distracted story. But if so, then Houellebecq the novelist pays a price ... It’s hard not to feel about the novel the way Florent-Claude feels about his life: it should have been better ... Still, Houellebecq is always worth reading because he confronts his readers with fundamental questions ... Houellebecq’s pessimism is so deep and relentless that he seems to be taunting us, all but daring us to draw different conclusions ... Perhaps it’s best to understand Houellebecq as a dystopian novelist whose grim visions of the future are not technological but moral. He takes certain existing values and imagines what society would be like if only those values reigned. If the world keeps living down to his jaundiced view of it, that isn’t on him. It’s on us.
John Barton
Positive Newsday A word of warning. Barton has packed decades of study into a single volume. Sometimes he dwells on minutia. On the plus side, anyone who wants to reach Barton’s surprising conclusions about what is (and isn’t) essential to Christian faith will learn a tremendous amount along the way.
W. K. Stratton
Positive Los Angeles Times \"... an ambitious and lively history ... At the heart of Stratton’s book are dozens of informative and colorful interviews, conducted with everyone from screenwriters and stuntmen to Hollywood producers and Mexican film stars. Stratton follows the cast and crew to the film’s primary location, the dusty Mexican state of Coahuila, where Sanchez quickly realized that something special was happening ... Stratton also places the movie in its historical context ... Stratton convincingly argues that the film, far from being nihilistic, is in fact a tragedy.\
John Kaag
Positive Newsday When (philosopher John Kaag) was 19 years old, he left his home in central Pennsylvania and ascended into the Swiss Alps, following the lofty path of his hero. There he found solitude and independence. He also got lost and nearly died of exposure. Undaunted, Kaag returns to Switzerland in his new memoir. It artfully blends Nietzsche’s biography, an accessible yet subtle introduction to his big ideas, and Kaag’s own reminiscences.
Sarah Kessler
Positive The Washington Post She follows freelancers as they try, and mostly fail, to find a better way to make a living ... the journalist offer[s] a deep look at what [David] Graeber calls our \'civilization based on work\'—and what’s so often unsatisfying about living in it ... The gig economy turns out to be less a brave new world than an opportunity for companies to transfer risks to their employees and offer few benefits in return. Kessler concludes that reinventing work without also reinventing the social safety net \'can’t quite count as progress\' ... A UBI, which is a guaranteed government stipend, might grant Kessler’s freelancers the freedom they were looking for. The question would then be: freedom to do what?
Bob D. Ehrman
Positive Newsday Ehrman’s conclusions are debatable, as he knows perfectly well. Like a good college lecture class, his book offers both a wealth of historical information and, to make sense of it all, a few plausible theories — including his own. He doesn’t tell us what to think. He gives us a lot to think about.