American - Writer | September 26, 1949 - 4
'Ape House' is an ambitious novel in several ways, for which it is to be admired, and it is certainly an easy read, but because Gruen is not quite prepared for the philosophical implications of her subject, it is not as deeply involving emotionally or as interesting thematically as it could be.
Jane Smiley
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In his 30 years of broadcasting and publishing fiction, Garrison Keillor has set the laugh bar pretty high.
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'Lean on Pete' is the story of a boy and his horse, but it is never heart-warming - it ranges in tone from desperate to merely painful - and, while fascinating, it is never entertaining or redemptive. But if you want an unadorned portrait of American life (at least in some places) at the beginning of the 21st century, this is the book for you.
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Trollope wrote so many novels and other works that they tend to crowd each other out.
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If there's anything Trollope novels always take seriously, it is money - how it flows from one character to another, how it is managed, who has it, who deserves it, and what it means to a character, male or female.
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Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.
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In the traditional urban novel, there is only survival or not. The suburban idea, the conformist idea, that agony can be seen to and cured by doctors or psychoanalysis or self-knowledge is nowhere to be found in the city. Talking is a way of life, but it is not a cure. Same with religion.
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As Fallingwater demonstrates, Wright's genius was always specific, but also always lively, always daring.
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Sinclair Lewis may be ripe for a revival; his books raise several interesting issues of art and fashion.
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Novelists of a conservative or more purely aesthetic bent hold up better on the surface, but their novels go in and out of fashion according to relevance or irrelevance.
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Not every novel that wants to be a tragedy gets to be one.
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'The Good Soldier' is an odd and maybe even unique book. That it is a masterpiece, almost a perfect novel, comes as a repeated surprise even to readers who have read it before.
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