Category: aging
- Sweet SorrowThe Farewell a film by Lulu Wang. With Awkwafina, Shuzshen Zhao, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin. **** I somehow got the feeling from this movie’s trailer—which I’ve seen a number of times—that it was a cute little comedy about pulling the wool over an old lady’s eyes about her cancer diagnosis, just so she wouldn’t be discouraged. ...Read more
- If We Just Knew What Mind IsHow to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan. Penguin Press. 465 pp. How’s that for a sub-title? Why didn’t he just add, the Universe? Except that in some ways that does describe what Michael Pollan’s book is about. It’s also about the ...Read more
- Too Much ThinkingCall It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World by Serene Jones. Viking. 310 pp. ***1/2 Four Men Shaking: Searching for Sanity with Samuel Beckett, Norman Mailer, and My Perfect Zen Teacher by Lawrence Shainberg. Shambhala. 134 pp. $16.95. ****1/2 “To stop your mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind ...Read more
- Get Out Your HandkerchiefsPavarotti a film by Ron Howard. With Placido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Jose Carreras, Bono. ***** Pavarotti is an unabashed example of cinematic hagiography, which tells the life story of Luciano Pavarotti through a group of loving admirers. The film mentions a couple of illicit affairs—including the notorious one that led to his divorce and second marriage—and ...Read more
- Fools’Paradise a novel by Toni Morrison. Vintage. 318 pp. $16.00 I can agree that Beloved is Toni Morrison’s masterpiece, but in some ways I found Paradise a more inventive and intricate novel. It’s the story of a fictional town in Oklahoma that was settled in the mid-twentieth century by African Americans who had been turned away ...Read more
- Twelve Years Away, ActuallySomewhere Toward the End a memoir by Diana Athill. Norton. 182 pp. $13.95 The good news about Somewhere Towards the End is that, at the age of 89, Diana Athill still had all her marbles and wrote as well as ever, perhaps better. Her prose seemed to gain in confidence through the years. The bad news ...Read more
- The Golden Age of EditorsStet: An Editor’s Life by Diana Athill. Grove Press. 250 pp. $16.00. **** Stet is a memoir from what I think of as the golden age of publishing. Diana Athill survived—and kept working—until publishing changed, and everything was about finding bestsellers and causing a stir. But she began when it was a gentleman’s business (though ladies ...Read more
- Take Me Out to the BallgameNot that I Want to Watch the Damn Thing I’m as sorry as I can be—and no one is sorrier than the man who hit the ball—that a little girl was struck by a foul ball at a game in Houston and had to be taken to the hospital. I agree that protective netting should be ...Read more
- What’s In a Name?Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Plume. 337 pp. I wrote some weeks ago that I didn’t think Toni Morrison became a great novelist with Song of Solomon; she was great from the start. Song of Solomon was nevertheless a definite step forward, with a larger theme, a richer backdrop, and a more complicated story than ...Read more
- The Tragic Hero of Our Time Is a Wizened Old Man (Played by a Woman)King Lear by William Shakespeare. Directed by Sam Gold. With Glenda Jackson, Jayne Houdyshell, Elizabeth Marvel, Ruth Wilson It’s fascinating the way works of art change through the course of one’s life. When I first read Don Quixote—as a junior in college—it seemed a comic work about a befuddled old man who had fallen in love ...Read more
- Everyday SaintDiane a film by Kent Jones. With Mary Kay Place, Jake Lacy, Estelle Parsons, Andrea Martin **** I’ve seen gritty working class movies before, but never seen a scene quite like one in Diane, where family members and friends are gathered around a small greasy table in a tiny kitchen, and people are drinking soda or ...Read more
- Folly and MadnessAsymmetry a novel by Lisa Halliday. Simon and Schuster. 271 pp. $16.00. ***** Asymmetry is a first novel that reads like the work of an old hand. Lisa Halliday has worked as an editor and agent, and an Internet bio mentions the fact that she published one story, in 2005, but it’s hard to believe she ...Read more
- That Sinking FeelingAnother Rohatsu Sesshin Down the Tubes The day before sesshin began—we always start on Friday evening—I told a friend from the Zen Center that I didn’t think I’d be able to have lunch with her on Friday after all. I had too much to do. “Yeah,” she said. “Me too. It’s kind of like you’re preparing ...Read more
- Coming HomeAn Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn. Vintage. 306 pp. $16.00 **** I’m a sucker for father-son stories, and this one is unique; several years ago, Daniel Mendelsohn’s 81-year-old father asked if he could attend the freshman seminar on The Odyssey that Mendelsohn was teaching at Bard College. The elder Mendelsohn ...Read more
- There Was a WarGrant by Ron Chernow. Penguin Press. 1074 pp. $40.00. ***** A friend of mine once told a story about General Patton, that after he died he asked St. Peter to take him back in history and show him the greatest general who ever lived. St. Peter agreed, and they traveled back in time to a small ...Read more
- Woman of LettersCan You Ever Forgive Me? a film by Marielle Heller. With Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells, Anna Deavere Smith. ****1/2 I’ve always been a fan of Melissa McCarthy; I think she’s pretty, funny, sexy, and is one of those actors who lights up the screen the moment she appears, especially in Bridesmaids, the first movie ...Read more
- Colette Before ColetteColette a film by Wash Westmoreland. With Keira Knightley, Dominic West, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough. ***1/2 Colette was a great hero of mine when I was young, because she wrote both fiction and nonfiction, she always seemed to write about herself, she wrote about transgressive subjects, and she seemed to discover herself through writing. She made ...Read more
- Infinity in a Grain of SandForever a series by Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard. With Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Catherine Keener, Noah Robbins. ***** Forever is one of the most unusual things I’ve ever seen on a screen. It’s composed of eight episodes roughly thirty minutes long, so my wife and I watched it over two nights. The difficulty with writing ...Read more
- Saul Learning to BellowThe Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow. Penguin Classics. 586 pp. $17.00 ****1/2 When I was a teenager in Pittsburgh in the Sixties, I made up my mind that I wanted to be a writer (without telling anybody, in case I failed), and set about trying to educate myself. The writers we studied at school ...Read more
- Why Books Are Better Than MoviesThe Wife a novel by Meg Wolitzer. Simon and Schuster. 219 pp. $16.00. **** They aren’t always better. The Godfather is a case in point, though it was a better book than it gets credit for. But The Wife is a much better book than movie not ...Read more
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All Shook UpWhat's in a Song? IIWriting for his LifeWhat’s in a Song?Mixed Feelings
View Other Essays by Topic
aging (127)American literature (226)art (123)Buddhism (171)Christianity (132)creative process (262)death and dying (144)meditation (125)movies (167)music (42)race (110)religion (196)sex (187)spirituality (174)the art of narrative (266)Uncategorized (21)world literature (23)