The actual subjects of the individual essays in Lazy Bastardism, Carmine Starnino’s latest collection of critical prose, remain secondary to the book’s primary subject: critical prose itself. Fearing inept readers, Starnino begins with a prologue excerpting an interview with Patrick Warner, in which Starnino states that “To despise criticism . . . is to despise […]
In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, from CanLit icon Margaret Atwood is a provocative but sometimes frustrating collection that gathers lectures, reviews, and other writings (including short stories and a novel excerpt, but mostly non-fiction) that relate, in some fashion, to the genre of “science fiction.” “Science Fiction” in scare quotes because what […]
What if Jesus had a twin brother named Christ, and the Church was the idea of the latter, not the intention of the former? Pullman’s short novel revels in this concept, mixing Christian mythology with speculative fiction. As shocking as this idea might seem, the true surprise is that Pullman, one of the literary world’s […]
Many books of letters are scattershot, unfocused affairs, but the letters of Sinclair Ross (as selected, arranged, and annotated by Jordan and David Stouck) are compelling and laid out like a story. They build to a jarring and poignant climax, so that the collection reads like a novel. A tragic novel. The Saskatchewan-born Ross (who […]
The best touchstone for Camilla Grudova’s debut collection of short stories is not the writing of her literary peers but the filmmaking of David Lynch, who is best known now for the television series Twin Peaks but first notorious for the cult film Eraserhead. Grudova’s fictional worlds, like Lynch’s filmed worlds, are closed, insular realms, […]
