From the early days of the Republic, Americans toured Europe for a variety of reasons, and some went to live there for the additional reason of economy. Not only were services cheaper, but they were also superior to their American equivalents. If we consider that very few Americans thought of service as desirable career path, …
The etiology of consciousness is Henry James’s subject. He is called “psychological,” probably because the epithet was invoked long before a wide public familiarity with Freud, and the now widespread idea that the brain is host to competing objectives and peculiar susceptibilities. Taking that familiarity for granted, I have always wondered what is so particularly …
Continue reading ‘A Note on “Psychological” Novels
Henry James and Colm Tóibín’ »
What is the most interesting thing you have learned from a book recently? This question is routinely asked — by a chatbot, I’m convinced — in the “By the Book” feature of the New York Times Book Review. Like the fatuous and idiotic final question about ideal literary dinner-party guests, it is designed to interest …
One of my great pleasures in life has been lunch, alone, with a book, at some local downscale restaurant that approximates a café. There aren’t many left. I loathe Greek diners/coffee shops, not only because the food is bad but because of the noisy, fluorescent-lit atmosphere. Music in the background is okay, as long as …
Continue reading ‘The Upstairs Delicatessen
by Dwight Garner’ »
The entries that will appear on this Web log are not book reviews. Since its beginnings in the early Nineteenth Century, modern (or mass-produced) literary journalism has had a firm grip on the word “review.” The first really successful literary journal, which ran from 1802 to 1929, was the Edinburgh Review. Its background was the …