It is the 1941 baseball season and Joe DiMaggio is not content Fans idolize him He enjoys a record-breaking hitting streak His wife gives birth to a son Yet DiMaggio is moody and saturnine besieged by guilt that he is not the hero his fans expect him to be…
Books
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Man of Contradictions
I first discovered Mario Vargas Llosa in 1990 when I was in Peru to see a friend climb Machu Picchu and write an article That was the time when Vargas Llosa the novelist was running for president of Peru The guerilla movement Shining Path was terrorizing the countryside and the economy was fal
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Novak’s Travels
Michael Novak’s autobiography is another remarkable American success story.
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A Legend Unraveled
Cesar Chavez is widely considered a great American hero. But ‘From the Jaws of Victory’ by Matt Garcia explores some of the activist’s flaws not often acknowledged by those who know only the legend.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Pride and Principle: The spiritual side of Jane Austen’s novels
Jane Austen’s novels are as much about vice and virtue as marriage and manners.
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Why Fiction Matters: An interview with George Saunders
“My job is to make what happens within the story convincing and accurate and compelling and believable – and if I am a decent observer of human nature and the world, all theological ideas can find a home here.”
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Beat Attitude: Jack Kerouac’s unexpected life
Despite his popular image, Jack Kerouac was born and died a self-identified Catholic.
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A Mother’s Tale
‘The Testament of Mary’ tells an intriguing though not always convincing story. It’s main character—and to an extent its only character—is an old woman fretting about her past as she tries to get the facts straight.
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After Dallas
Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson is a profound analysis of Lord Acton’s 1887 maxim: power corrupts.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Youthful Indiscretions
Julian Barnes’s new novel is a philosophical mystery that morphs into a morality tale.