Oscar Hijuelos’s ‘Mr. Ives’ Christmas’ doesn’t start out as a cheery story—but in the end, this parable of good will lost and good will regained is a perfect Christmas tale.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Bishop John Cummins and the Catholic history of Oakland
Bishop John Cummins had a significant and lasting impact on the Catholic Church in his own diocese and elsewhere through his quiet leadership and ministry. He was a reminder to many of what Pope Francis meant when he called for bishops who are “pastors, not princes.”
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
We were all childlike once. Jesus is calling us to be that way again.
A Reflection for Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
John Banville: notorious literary esthete—and crime novelist
John Banville is surely the only crime novelist in recent memory who has won the Booker Prize and is regularly rumored to be in the running for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘Gladiator II’ reminds us what we already knew: America can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire
The box office success of “Gladiator II” is a reminder that many Americans are obsessed with the Roman Empire. They’ve been joined over the years by more than a few ‘America’ contributors.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Doris Grumbach, L.G.B.T. pioneer and fearless literary critic
Doris Grumbach was an accomplished novelist, literary critic, biographer and memoirist and an early pioneer for her books exploring L.G.B.T. themes. She was also a longtime book reviewer and essayist for ‘America.’
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Nabokov, ‘Lolita’ and the question of morally offensive art
‘Lolita’ may have been canceled, but Vladimir Nabokov remains the godfather of modern prose.
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
Anger is not a sin
A Reflection for the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The art of the presidential tell-all book
Much ink has been spilled over this presidential election—but not nearly as much as was used in a long history of presidential memoirs and biographies.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Willa Cather, the author of great American Catholic novels—who wasn’t Catholic
Few writers have ever captured in fiction the American religious sense that underlies so much of our history more than Willa Cather.