Books & Literature
Jules Feiffer, cartoon chronicler of our neuroses, reveals his own in words and art
It takes only 53 pages of this cardinal American memoir to get to the heart of the matter — or the nitty-gritty as the expression went in another century. A teenage Jules Feiffer is working as a prodigy in the studio of now-legendary American cartoonist Will Eisner. (Updated: 03/14/10 3:40 PM )
Gloomy‘Infinities’ has dim view of Adam’s family
Irish novelist John Banville, already winner of the Man Booker Prize for his 2005 novel, “The Sea,” may have surpassed himself with the brilliance and introspection of his writing in the mythic novel, “The Infinities.” (Updated: 03/14/10 6:32 AM )
An unsatisfying slog through a dystopian universe
While reading Steven Amsterdam’s bleak “Things We Didn’t See Coming,” I was reminded of a comment a professor of mine made when I was one of his students at Canisius College in the mid-1990s. (Updated: 03/14/10 6:32 AM )
Books in brief
YOUNG ADULT (Updated: 03/14/10 6:32 AM )
Best Sellers
FICTION (Updated: 03/14/10 6:32 AM )
Editor’s Choice
My First New York: Early Adventures in the Big City by the editors of New York Magazine; Ecco, 239 pages ($23.99). Tom Wolfe was among the star writers in what was then the protozoan form of New York Magazine. To this day, no one has ever more appropriately named one of the reigning maladies of life, culture and opinion in New York City. “The Big League Complex” he called it, the idea that if the tree didn’t fall in New York City (specifically Manhattan), there was no one important to hear it. Hence it made no sound, never happened. (Updated: 03/14/10 6:32 AM )
Poetry and Literature Calendar
TODAY, 2p.m.:“Rome, The Second Time,” a book launch and wine tasting with authors William Grabner and Dianne Bennett. Western New York Book Arts Center, 468 Washington St. (Updated: 03/14/10 6:32 AM )
Poetry: Two poems by Michael Tritto
Locked in Ages
By Michael Tritto
(Updated: 03/12/10 2:30 PM )
By Michael Tritto
(Updated: 03/12/10 2:30 PM )
Man Booker winner gets critics’ prize
NEW YORK — Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall,” winner last year of the Man Booker Prize in London, has now been honored on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. (Updated: 03/13/10 6:37 AM )
Book offers tips on setting a stylish dinner table
When it comes to planning a dinner party, setting the table is just as important—but, thankfully, less time-consuming— as the hours you’ll spend crafting raviolis or hovering over chocolate souffle. (Updated: 03/12/10 6:41 AM )
Burton's fiction gives voice to the doomed Tamsen Donner
There are some literary obsessions so magnificent and all- consuming that they require more explication than even a personal memoir can document. They require the paradoxical, truth-seeking amplifications of fiction. (Updated: 03/05/10 11:40 AM )
Smart, cautionary tale about a family and money
Self-delusion rears its destructive head—time and again — in Jonathan Dee’s brilliantly understated new novel, “The Privileges.” (Updated: 03/07/10 6:34 AM )
Mandel memoir movingly details his battle with OCD
I opened up Howie Mandel’s new memoir “Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me” on Jan. 28, shortly after hearing of the death of J. D. Salinger. That must mean something. (Updated: 03/07/10 6:34 AM )
Books in brief: Pat Metheny, the new Matthew Skelton and more
NONFICTION (Updated: 03/07/10 8:30 AM )
Editor’s Choice: ‘Insectopedia’ by Hugh Raffles
Insectopedia by Hugh Raffles; Pantheon, 465 pages ($29.95). In any competition for the strangest delights of this publishing year, nothing is likely to beat this A to Z investigation of bug-world. We’re not talking then of its 26 alphabetical sections of the creatures who have arguably become the triumphant ones of all those who share this planet (aphids, beetles, cockroaches, etc.), we’re talking about alphabetical entries that demand to be read before their relationship to insects is clear: Air, Beauty, Chernobyl, etc. (Updated: 03/07/10 8:32 AM )