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I had read Richard Russo’s short stories in The New Yorker, but never any of his novels. He was always, to me, one of those authors my mom was always reading. She loved Bridge of Sighs and recommended it to all her friends, and there’s a large hardcover of Empire Falls somewhere in our house. […]
July 29, 2011
When the latest novel by James Hynes opens, its protagonist Kevin Quinn is on a plane, landing in Texas, for a job interview. He’s thinking (worrying) about terrorist attacks. He’s imagining the most grisly, horrible ways that a terrorist could shoot down the plane from ground-level and kill them all. It’s interesting, I suppose, and […]
June 20, 2011
When the Tribune Company bought the Times Mirror Company in 2000 (basically a hostile takeover, hardly the “merger” that many called it), the reporters of both the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times alike were none too pleased. Now James O’Shea, who was an editor for both papers, has written the story of that troubled marriage, […]
June 15, 2011
I finally got around to watching Too Big to Fail last weekend, and I really enjoyed it. Maybe a bit overblown and hyper-stylized but great acting, swift pace, bla bla bla. I’m not going to bother reviewing the film, because it’s been done enough and it’s easy enough (interesting, too) to find both ravingly positive […]
May 31, 2011
I know this is an oversimplification that will annoy people, but here goes: novels, it seems to me, often become popular in pairs, by subject matter. It’s happened three times that I can think of in recent years (I’m sure there are many more examples but I’m thinking only of cases where both novels have […]
May 14, 2011
“It happens like this.” So begins Damon Galgut’s Booker-shortlisted novel In a Strange Room. It’s very matter-of-fact, isn’t it, and indeed this sets a tone for the rest of the book—events occur, the protagonist travels around, but there is little time wasted on analysis or explanation for his travels, or the motivation, or the reasoning. […]
May 9, 2011
When you get a few pages into Adam Ross’s debut novel, you think, ‘Okay, this is a murder mystery.’ A whodunnit. And it is that, but it’s also much more. The novel is a book within a book, and within that, it’s three stories, intertwining and doubling back on themselves, about three men and their […]
January 31, 2011
Who exactly is the monster in the new documentary Catfish? Before seeing the movie, all you hear is that there’s a big secret behind the film, that you don’t want to have it spoiled for you, that it will totally shock/rock your world. The trailer warns “Don’t let anyone tell you what it is.” OMG! […]
January 5, 2011
Every moron with a blog feels the need to do a “best of the year” list, so here’s mine, for what it’s worth. Book: C by Tom McCarthy is absolutely the novel of the year, and I believe the literary world will come to agree in time and give it more credit. I mean, yes, […]
January 3, 2011
I’ve heard many people gripe that The Town was formulaic, unoriginal, or had wooden performances. Let me attempt to refute all of those, because The Town was actually a truly impressive directorial accomplishment, a movie I’d place in the pantheon of outstanding contemporary Boston films (The Paper Chase, Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone, The Departed). […]
Daniel B. Roberts 
August 13, 2011
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