Elizabeth Strout’s new short story collection offers an array of poignant case studies portraying this legacy of trauma.
Books
An unsettling look at America’s culture of self-defense
“Stand your ground” laws typically expand the historic reach of the “castle doctrine,” the right in English common law to defending one’s own property.
Bringing Thomas Merton’s wisdom to children with an ABC book
A new introduction could plant seeds in children that will perhaps flower later in life.
Telling stories and paying witness to suffering
While Strout’s masterful design draws us in, it is the searing emotional specificity of her language that captures us.
In Alice McDermott’s new Brooklyn novel, Sister knows best
Alice McDermott has once again delivered a novel to ponder and cherish, from its moral quandaries down to its wry humor and hypnotic prose.
A patchwork quilt
If Seamus Heaney “digs” with his pen, Alexie sews with his.
A writer who helps us understand the lives of others
Paley knew by instinct what science now confirms: the role reading plays in developing empathy for the other.
Winston and George, writers and truth tellers at heart
As social observers, generally from opposite ends of the political spectrum, both men were keenly aware of England’s long-held class divisions.
The long, ugly history of segregated housing
Government action at every level has caused segregated housing and its ugly effects in the United States.
Is war a necessary evil?
Paul Lauritzen reviews “War: An Enquiry” by A. C. Grayling
