AltWeeklies Wire
A Brick of Crumb: A Handbook Collects the Cartoonistnew
The R. Crumb Handbook is a peculiar hybrid: part sampler of Crumb’s work, part autobiography, part festschrift, part documentation of his favorite things, part collection of photographs of the artist looking like one of his own caricatures.
Boston Phoenix |
Douglas Wolk |
07-22-2005 |
Nonfiction
Holding Forth: Marc Estrin's Arnold Hitlernew
Marc Estrin’s sophomore novel follows an alienated protagonist as his life intersects with various historical events and flash points. Arnold Hitler enters a Texas elementary school in the mid ’50s, and witnesses up close the wrenching drama of an early desegregation attempt.
Boston Phoenix |
Richard C. Walls |
07-19-2005 |
Fiction
Passionate Aristocrat: Robert Lowell's Unvarnished Shop Talknew
This is unrevised Lowell, spiky, provocative, with signature strings of adjectives that must have delighted his correspondents.
Boston Phoenix |
William Corbett |
07-08-2005 |
Nonfiction
Other Englandsnew
Who wrote Hamlet? Did Christopher Marlowe help William Shakespeare? Plus, the tragic vision and mystical romance of Joan Aiken's Wolves Chronicles.
Boston Phoenix |
Jeffrey Gantz |
06-20-2005 |
Fiction
Tags: in, and, of, King, wolves, Nantucket, black, Stolen, Hearts, Lodge, Alex Jack; Joan Aiken, Battersea, Chase, Clatteringshaws, Cuckoo, Dido, Hamlet; Wolves Chronicles, Lake, Lear, Limbo, Midwinter, Nightbirds, Nightingale, Pa, TREE, Willoughby
How Sweet It Wasnew
Philadelphia music took the country by storm during the disco era. A House on Fire describes these singers' success without telling enough about their sound.
Boston Phoenix |
Michael Freedberg |
06-10-2005 |
Nonfiction
From the Bronx to South Central: Jeff Chang’s Epic History of Hip-Hopnew
Critic and activist Jeff Chang’s ambitious and thorough Can’t Stop Won’t Stop might be the best book ever written on hip-hop, precisely because he treats it and its attendant generation as the coda rather the song.
Boston Phoenix |
Hua Hsu |
06-09-2005 |
Nonfiction
Bad Consciencenew
Getting stared at by six eyeballs is unnerving, but stick the words "The Sociopath Next Door" on top and those stares turn Ted Bundy-creepy. The title -- and the cover design -- of Martha Stout's new book isn't exactly delicate, but given the topic, why should it be?
Boston Phoenix |
Amy Finch |
05-23-2005 |
Nonfiction
Days Of The Wu: The RZA Looks Inside The Clannew
The Manual provides insight into a collective that became ever denser by explaining the Wu philosophies and the Wu connection with film, fashion and comic books. It also prints annotated lyrics to some of the group's most popular songs.
Boston Phoenix |
Sam Pfeifle |
04-28-2005 |
Nonfiction
The Spook Of Providence: H.P. Lovecraft's Wretched Excessnew
The addition of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) to the Library of America’s prestigious list of honored authors begs the question whether he really is that good or whether the L of A is just running out of Great American Writers.
Boston Phoenix |
Richard C. Walls |
04-22-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Superheroes and the Latest Generation of Mainstream Comicsnew
Superhero comic books are the wealthy stepchildren of the comics world. Their sales drive the industry, but they can’t get any respect, even when they warrant it.
Boston Phoenix |
Douglas Wolk |
04-21-2005 |
Fiction
My Blank Pagesnew
The lack of pre-release hype and author sightings on the media radar have made it possible to appreciate the writing in this short-story collection without getting bogged down in the Dave Eggers cult of personality.
Boston Phoenix |
Nina MacLaughlin |
04-14-2005 |
Fiction
Tags: of, a, Dave Eggers, How We Are Hungry, McSweeney's, Know, You, Genius, Heartbreaking, Our, Shall, Staggering, Velocity!, work
Fairy Dust: Jeanette Winterson Floats Awaynew
British novelist Jeannette Winterson's eighth novel marks a return to the trademark intimacy of her acclaimed earlier work. It’s cyclical, circular and surreal, and the Biblical lilt of it is counterbalanced by glimmering flimsiness.
Boston Phoenix |
Nina MacLaughlin |
04-13-2005 |
Fiction
Art Demon: An interview with Camille Paglianew
Camille Paglia talks (and talks and talks) about her new book of poetry commentary — and academic ‘ass-lickers’ and ‘liberal media elites’ had better respond intelligently for a change.
Boston Phoenix |
Tamara Wieder |
04-07-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Jonathan Safran Foer Discusses Extremely Loud and Incredibly Closenew
Jonathan Safran Foer talks about his new novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, in which he makes September 11th the canvas for his portrait of the dimensions of tragedy.
Boston Phoenix |
Nina MacLaughlin |
03-24-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Memoir Covers the Author's Struggle to Believe and Morenew
David Plante descends from Ernest Hemingway and writes a high American plain style with a personality all its own. In his memoir American Ghosts, he quotes a passage from Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon, and his prose stands up to it.
Boston Phoenix |
William Corbett |
03-22-2005 |
Nonfiction
Tags: American Ghosts, David Plante
