Djuna Barnes’s Playthings Djuna Barnes’s Playthings
Her short fiction provides an odd glimpse at a writer whose interests move beyond the human and into something more inchoate.
Feb 25, 2025 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams
Ágota Kristóf and the Agony of the “Enemy” Language Ágota Kristóf and the Agony of the “Enemy” Language
In her memoir, The Illiterate, the formidable Hungarian writer details her lifelong battle with language as a tool of misunderstanding.
Aug 14, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams
Marlen Haushofer’s Bucolic Apocalypse Marlen Haushofer’s Bucolic Apocalypse
Examining an isolated life, in the wake of an unknown cataclysm, The Wall forces its readers to confront their relationship to the natural world.
Aug 2, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams
The Epic Misery of Thomas Bernhard The Epic Misery of Thomas Bernhard
His little-known novel The Cheap-Eaters, recently translated by Douglas Robertson, puts forward a basic thesis: Life is a sequence of crushings.
Jun 7, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Missouri Williams