Jump-cutting back and forth through Americana, from the “shot heard ’round the world” to Lenny Bruce’s extended monologues on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Don DeLillo shines a light on America’s dark impulse to violence in “Underworld.”
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Sportswriter” by Richard Ford
No man is an island. Except for possibly Frank Bascombe, Richard Ford’s uniquely American dreamer, drifting absently through an unexamined life in the New Jersey suburbs.
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Intuitionist” by Colson Whitehead
Lila Mae Watson is a black woman trying to move up in a world that keeps trying to push her back down. But she’s not having any of it in Colson Whitehead’s “The Intuitionist”.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes
War is Hell. But who knew the flames would be stoked by the drunken aspirations – or just the bumbling incompetence of – your fellow soldiers? Welcome to Vietnam.
DIY MFA Reading List: “The Brothers K” by David James Duncan
David James Duncan hits one out of the ballpark with this truly Great American Novel featuring the Chance family’s good-natured struggle with faith, regret, war, love … and baseball.
DIY MFA Reading List: “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison
A nameless protagonist navigates a tragically comic landscape fraught with danger, mystery, and peril in this timeless novel dramatizing the absurdity of race relations in America.
DIY MFA Round 2: “Rabbit, Run” by John Updike
Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom can only be counted on to screw things up. Or just to screw.
The DIY MFA in Creative Writing
MFA programs help authors hone their craft. They’re also hugely expensive and, for full-time parents, the residency requirements can be impractical. Introducing the “DIY MFA in Creative Writing”.
Summer Reading List
My viewing of “Terminator: Salvation” yesterday afternoon was the official psychological beginning of the summer season for me here in Dallas. Despite having read some flaccid reviews I actually loved it, though I wish I hadn’t seen the previews because they gave away a critical piece of information which would have made the movie much [...]
The Reader
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
~Samuel Johnson
What’s the number one tool in the writer’s toolbox? You guessed it … his library.
Read, read, read. Read published books. Read literary criticism. Read book flaps and synopses. Read things you don’t like (often – it will break you out of a rut). [...]