In ‘Zero at the Bone,’ Christian Wiman offers a prismatic series of 50 chapters (52, counting the mystical zeros at the beginning and end) featuring essays, poems, theological reflections, personal reminiscences and literary analyses.
Literature
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Elizabeth Cullinan, the ‘criminally under-read’ bard of the Bronx Irish
Elizabeth Cullinan’s literary output was not prodigious—but her memorable characters and close attention to the Irish-American culture in which she lived made her a prominent fiction writer in the ’70s and ’80s.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Gerhard Lohfink on Jesus, discipleship and the life of faith
Gerhard Lohfink, who died last week in his native Germany at the age of 89, leaves behind an impressive legacy of faith-informed scholarship on the New Testament and Christian discipleship.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Tan Twan Eng’s new novel summons the spirit of Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham’s short story “The Letter” serves as the linchpin of Tran Twan Eng’s third novel, “The House of Doors,” which was selected for the 2023 Booker Prize long list.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The sometimes-savage perfection of Catholic parody
Parody, Ernest Hemingway said, is a step up from writing on the wall above the urinal. He was wrong.
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1958: How would Hemingway, Waugh or Greene have told the story of a dead dog?
In 1958, Joel Wells of Chicago’s “The Critic” contributed a somewhat unique story to America. How, he wondered, would some of our most famous authors tell the story of a dog that had been hit by a car?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Karl Rahner’s theology of The Beatles
A newly available compilation of Rahner’s writings on the arts, edited and translated from the original German by Gesa Thiessen, traces Rahner’s thinking about the phenomenon of inspired enthusiasm.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Baseball, Brooklyn and Seoul: It’s finally time for Opening Day.
Opening Day is a reminder that there are, to quote Bill Veeck, only two seasons: winter and baseball.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
A St. Patrick’s Day question: What is the greatest novel ever written about Irish New York?
Chicago has James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan. New Orleans has John Kennedy Toole’s Ignatius J. Reilly. Boston has Edwin O’Connor’s ‘Last Hurrah.’ And William Kennedy’s Albany Cycle series has “ironweeds” like Billy and Francis Phelan. What, then, is the greatest book ever written about the New York City Irish?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Paul Lynch’s new novel offers complexity, not certitude
Paul Lynch’s ‘Prophet Song’ was inspired by the Syrian Civil War and the plight of those seeking refuge from the destruction and death occurring in Syria.