The Reaches of Stringency: On Philip Larkin The Reaches of Stringency: On Philip Larkin
Self-congratulation, deceptions and the art of failure.
Aug 8, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood
Night on Earth Night on Earth
After Dark, Haruki Murakami's edgy new novel, describes how the lives of a group of strangers intersect over the course of one night.
May 10, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood
Not Dark Yet Not Dark Yet
Gore Vidal's Point to Point Navigation is a brave and continuous affirmation of life and an assurance that though the Republic has been betrayed, we are not to give up hope.
Nov 22, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood
The Dying Animal The Dying Animal
Gabriel García Márquez's new novella begins as an autobiography, but the passion-filled story of an old man, mad with love and clinging to life, weaves Marquez's othe...
Nov 17, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood
Is That All There Is? Is That All There Is?
It's hard to resist the misery of V.S. Naipaul's late fiction, hard not to surrender to its bleak and wary authority.
Dec 9, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood
White Teeth White Teeth
Norman Rush's first novel, Mating (1991), opens with a nervous but gripping epigram: "In Africa, you want more, I think." The speaker, an unnamed American anthropologist who do...
Jun 26, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Michael Wood