Evening Mind

 

“There’s no other place around here like this, so–this must be the place. ”  Card at Durham’s Ivy Room Restaurant, circa 1966

I’m not especially interested in relating the details of my daily life, so I’m not interested in a conventional blog.  But I am interested in writing about books, and about some of the movies I see, and about writing and literature in general. I have a habit of writing, but no wish to show all of it—even most of it—to the world. What I’ll publish here is pieces that have a shape, because that’s what I like in other websites.  I don’t want to hear from people everyday, just when they have something to say.

I do love to hear about good books to read, and movies to see. That’s what I’ll mostly write about.


Dogen for the Masses posted on 03-24-2025

The Zen Master’s Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe by Jundo Cohen.  Wisdom Publications.  200 pp. I’ve heard the name Jundo Cohen in Zen circles for years, and associated him with his teacher, Gudo Nishijima. Read More

Weird From the Get Go posted on 03-11-2025

No One Belongs Here More Than You stories by Miranda July.  Scribner.  205 pp.  .00  **** The First Bad Man a novel by Miranda July.  Scribner.  276 pp.  .00 **** I have now read the complete prose fiction of Miranda July, and I must say I’m Read More

Two Masterpieces posted on 03-06-2025

  Nickel Boys a film by RaMell Ross.  With Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Trey Perkins.  Streaming on various platforms.  ***** I felt about the movie Nickel Boys exactly the way I felt about the book; Read More

Mary, Erica, Miranda posted on 02-25-2025

All Fours a novel by Miranda July.  Riverhead Books.  326 pp. ***** My original idea—as I mentioned in my last post—was to compare the outrageous women from different generations, my mother’s (Mary McCarthy), mine (Erica Jong), and my son’sRead More

Until the End posted on 02-15-2025

A Charmed Life a novel by Mary McCarthy.  From Mary McCarthy Novels and Stories 1942-1963.  Thomas Mallon editor.  Library of America.  pp. 509-759.  **** When I got Miranday July’s novel All Fours for Christmas—at my request—it occurred to me that Read More

Unfinished Lives posted on 01-22-2025

Lincoln in the Bardo a novel by George Saunders.  Random House.  343 pp.  ***** I haven’t been a fan of George Saunders’ short stories.  I read Tenth of December with admiration but without much pleasure.  The stories seemed clever andRead More

American Original posted on 01-15-2025

Recollections of My Life as a Woman: The New York Years by Diane di Prima.  Penguin Books.  424 pp.  .00.  **** In this astonishing and inspiring memoir—424 tightly packed pages full of remarkably detailed writing, which covers maybe 30 years of Read More

Losing It posted on 01-02-2025

Between the Temples a film by Nathan Silver.  With Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Robert Smigel, Caroline Aaron, Madeleine Weinstein.  Streaming on Netflix.  **** Between the Temples has a homegrown, home-movieish feeling that I associate withRead More

Keep an Eye on Igor posted on 12-26-2024

Anora a film by Sean Baker.  With Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian, Yura Borisov.  Streaming (by purchase) on Amazon Prime ****  Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes.   My feelings about this movie are largely informed by a Read More

And Is He Pissed posted on 11-19-2024

Valdez Is Coming a novel by Elmore Leonard.  From Elmore Leonard: Westerns.  Library of America.  pp. 279-414.  ***** I shouldn’t make too much of Elmore Leonard.  I probably already have.  He was a genre writer who didn’t care what genre he wasRead More

Looks Pretty Good to Me posted on 11-14-2024

My Old Ass a movie by Megan Park.  With Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maria Dizzia.  Streaming on Amazon Prime.  ***** I tend not to like movies about time travel.  I don’t like gimmicky movies in general (a contemporary teenagerRead More

She Wasn’t Crazy.  The World Was. posted on 11-04-2024

The Known World a novel by Edward P. Jones.  Harper Perennial.  388 pp.  ***** It isn’t often that I read a novel, then sit down immediately and read it again.  I wasn’t planning to do that this time.  But as I pondered my previous review of TheRead More

Elmore the Great posted on 10-17-2024

Last Stand at Saber River and Hombre from Westerns by Elmore Leonard.  Library of America.  pp. 1-278.  ***** I love the story of Elmore Leonard’s formation as a writer that Greg Sutter tells in his excellent chronology at the back of the LibraryRead More

Writing Like God posted on 10-08-2024

The Known World a novel by Edward P. Jones.  Harper Perennial.  388 pp.  ***** I have a friend who, when he wants to compliment a writer’s style, says, He (or she) writes like a god.  He’s said that a few too many times at this point, but I knowRead More

Facing Death posted on 10-07-2024

His Three Daughters a film by Azazel Jacobs.  With Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen, Jovan Adepo, Jay O. Sanders.  Streaming on Netflix.  ***** His Three Daughters is a sleeper, a Netflix original that we watched because we were fishing Read More

Roll Out the Oldsters posted on 09-19-2024

Thelma a film by Josh Margolis.  With June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, Richard Roundtree.  Streaming (for a fee) on Apple+.  **** Thelma is an oldster movie, a genre I haven’t written about for some time but which has notRead More

Plain Truth posted on 09-12-2024

All Aunt Hagar’s Children stories by Edward P. Jones.  Harper Perennial.  399 pp.  ***** Edward P. Jones, it would seem, can write about anything, and anybody.  He published his first book of stories, Lost in the City, in 1992 (otherwise known asRead More

Academics as a Blood Sport posted on 08-29-2024

Stoner a novel by John Williams.  From John Williams: Collected Novels.  Daniel Mendelsohn, editor.  Library of America.  pp. 257-486 **** William Stoner, after growing up on a hardscrabble farm in rural Missouri, has two major epiphanies in hisRead More

I’d Call Them Battlefields posted on 08-21-2024

The Groves of Academe a novel by Mary McCarthy.  From Mary McCarthy Novels & Stories 1942-1963.  Library of America.  pp. 289-508.  ***** I’ve always loved novels of academic life.  I love the academy, as bonkers as it often is, and loveRead More

Perennial Wisdom posted on 08-19-2024

Open Secrets: The Letters of Reb Yerachmiel ben Yisrael by Rami M. Shapiro.  Monkfish. 128 pp.  .36  ***** Rabbi Rami Shapiro is one of the great reconcilers of spiritual traditions in the world today.  In books like Judaism Without Tribalism,Read More