Fiction of far-flung truths and close-to-home consequences: a holiday gift list for off-the-beaten track readers. Making a gift of a book speaks of our desire for significant conversation, something beyond the daily round of “What’s new?” It’s an emblem of respect, and often special affection, between giver and recipient. By my lights, at least, such […]
Author Archives: Don
Charles Dickens: Destiny by the Word
Charles Dickens may well be the most ingenious author in English literature. The energy of his inventiveness gave birth to a gallery of characters — from Oliver Twist to Ebenezer Scrooge — whose lives have overflowed the boundaries of his books to become permanent fixtures in the collective imagination. So strong is the shadow cast […]
The Death of the Author
A memorial gallery of seven writers who died in 2019: Diana Athill, Russell Baker, Ernest J. Gaines, Clive James, Robert K. Massie, Edmund Morris, and Toni Morrison. Last year, I published 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die; this year saw the death of several authors whose achievements are celebrated therein. As 2019 draws to […]