Concluding the Tales of the City series was perhaps Armistead Maupin’s most challenging literary task. Concluding an epic novel–let alone a series of novels–involves not only revisiting the key characters and wrapping up their stories, but also the inclusion of
Allan Gurganus’s new book, Local Souls, is a collection of three novellas. They share a common location–the fictional town of Falls, North Carolina–and also a common theme: survival. They are rendered in a style that is at once lyrical
Local Souls: Three Superb New Novellas from Allan Gurganus Read More »
Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club is an excellent book. I’m not the first to notice this. It won the Lambda Award last month and before that, Benjamin Alire Saenz’s collection of short stories won the coveted Faukner
Benjamin Alire Saenz is a Great American Short Story Writer. Read More »
There’s a conceit to most biographies. The biographer does the research, interviews the surviving witnesses and from these often disparate accounts, hobbles together a narrative that bears the imprimatur of omniscience. Cynthia Carr’s new David Wojnarowicz biography is different. In
Cynthia Carr’s Ground-Breaking David Wojnarowicz Biography is Superb. Read More »
It takes courage today to write a novel with a first person narrator who is bisexual. In this politically correct age, there is bound to be a pitfall, a mistake, an offense made–perhaps unintentionally. It is remarkable that John Irving
John Irving’s In One Person is Brave and Brilliant. Read More »
Alison Bechdel’s new graphic novel Are You My Mother? is very different from her first, Fun Home. Are You My Mother? isn’t as much an examination of her mother’s life as it is an exploration of the nature of
Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother is Intellectual and Entertaining. Read More »
Tonight the Publishing Triangle Awards will be announced in New York City. Let me say in advance: congratulations to the winners. And also to all the nominees. This year there was a bit of controversy as Band of Thebes’ Stephen
Colm Toibin’s The Empty Family is Great. Read More »
Proving Tolstoy’s statement that “every family is unhappy in its own way,” Alison Bechdel presents us with a uniquely unhappy family. The fact that this family is her own makes this book all the more powerful. Reading it for the
Read Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. Read More »
I knew Vito Russo. And I suppose that’s part of the reason I shed a a few tears at the end of reading Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo. I’m not going to say that I was
Celluloid Activist: Finally a Biography Worthy of Vito Russo Read More »
After twenty-one years, Armistead Maupin has finally released another Tales of the City book. The result is more literary, more serious and–for me–more emotionally moving than any of Mr. Maupin’s previous books.
Mr. Maupin answers my first question early on:
Armistead Maupin’s New Tales of the City Book is His Best Yet. Read More »