Mario Vargas Llosa’s long literary life established him as a monumental figure in Spanish-language literature and Latin American history.
Literature
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Pope Francis loved literature and film—and artists loved him for it
Pope Francis trusted the imagination and regarded it as a gift from God. Instead of being suspicious and fearful of its power, he urged artists to follow its promptings.
![20160811T1325-1001-CNS-POPE-SYRIAN-REFUGEES [web]](https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/20160811T1325-1001-CNS-POPE-SYRIAN-REFUGEES-web.jpg-388895.jpg?resize=770%2C480&ssl=1)
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Pope Francis the bookworm
Pope Francis was a great lover of literature: He peppered his homilies, talks and even encyclicals with literary references from Dostoyevsky, Proust, Hopkins, Dante and more, and he also encouraged his flock to read broadly and often.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Who will shape fiction’s future?
In ‘Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel, Edwin Frank explores how reality has been presented and even transformed through the way it is molded in fiction—and how the novel evolved from the 19th century novel to that of the 20th century.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Father Charles Strobel’s life of servant leadership
There is joy and heartbreak in Father Charles Strobel’s memoir, ‘The Kingdom of the Poor,’ but mostly joy.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Tara Isabella Burton’s fairy tale for grownups
If what we need now is the kind of story that restores wonder to the world, Tara Isabella Burton’s ‘Here in Avalon’ provides one avenue to that destination.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘The Great Gatsby’ got a bad review in America. A century later, how do we see F. Scott Fitzgerald?
F. Scott Fitzgerald was not a favorite of America’s editors for many years, but they all read ‘Gatsby.’ Everyone reads ‘Gatsby.’
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Seven decades in the classroom: The teaching legacy of Ladislas Orsy, S.J.
In a long life as a priest, teacher and scholar, Ladislas Orsy, S.J., left an impressive legacy at his death last week at the age of 103.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘Only baseball and love are eternal.’ Reflections on our national pastime
Sports hasn’t always been the most popular topic among America’s editors and contributors—unless it was the Grand Old Game, baseball.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Earl Weaver and baseball’s balance between stories and statistics
In ‘The Last Manager,’ John W. Miller marries stories and statistics in a fascinating account of the life of Earl Weaver, the diminutive, cantankerous skipper who is the winningest manager since the moon landing.