Fiction Archive |
James M. Cain: Mildred Pierce - James Cain was the master of a chilly, sexy fiction that raised the hair on the back of the neck of the censors. Of the '30s and '40s crime novelists,
James Salter (1925-2015) - June 19, 2015. I was playing poker with my wife and daughter at midnight in Paris --- we couldn't sleep, and we were using potato chips for chips, and there
James Salter (June 10, 1925 – June 19, 2015) - Acorns do not flourish under great oaks. I was lucky to meet Salter when I had formed my own style and was too old for him to hurt me as
James Salter: A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter labored under a curse. He was considered a “writer’s writer” --- that is, too good for the masses to appreciate. There are worse things to be called. Still, to
James Salter: All That Is - "A major literary event." That’s the phrase for any novel by James Salter, and especially “All That Is.” First, because Salter is known in the trade as a “writer’s writer” ---
James Salter: Last Night - Philip married Adele on a day in June. It was cloudy and the wind was blowing. Later the sun came out. It had been a while since Adele had married
James Salter: Last Night - The first rule of fiction is "Show. Don't tell." The best way to get you to read James Salter's stories is to serve one up. This is the title story
James Salter: Last Night (Take 2) - Writing about “A Christmas Carol,” I noted that “books change over time.” In the case of the classic Dickens story, I meant 170 years. Imagine my surprise when I picked
James Salter: Light Years - Guest Butler Pamela Erens won the Ironweed PressFiction Prize for The Understory. Visit her at her site. Joe Fox, a legendary editor at Random House, was once asked which
Jane Gardam: Old Filth - Jane Gardam didn’t start writing until she was 43 and the youngest of her three children was off to school. Now 91, she has published 25 books. She’s the only
January 1963: Mary Meyer badgers JFK to do more for the poor - In January, I published a fact-based novel, JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story. It was a reimagining of the diary that Kennedy’s only serious lover kept during his
JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story - Can it really be 60 years since John Kennedy was assassinated? If you are a Senior Boomer, November 22, 1963 marked the end of your childhood and the start of
John le Carré (1931 – 2020) - David Cornwell was “recruited as a teenaged errand boy of British Intelligence” and, for almost two decades, was some kind of spy. Moonlighting as a novelist, he wrote novels. Because
John le Carré: A Delicate Truth - When we last were blessed with a John le Carré novel, we were confronted with a question not often posed in espionage thrillers --- who is more immoral, the biggest
John le Carré: Our Kind of Traitor - In the copies of "Our Kind of Traitor" that were sent to reviewers, John le Carré included a reprint of a 2009 piece from The Guardian. The headline: “Drug money saved
John Le Carre: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold - In 1963, David Cornwell published his third novel. Because he was then an agent for British Intelligence, he used, as his government required, a pseudonym: “John Le Carré.” Graham Greene, who
John Tunis: The Kid from Tomkinsville - I read my first John Tunis novel when I was 8. By 10, I'd read them all. In my 20s, I revisited my childhood favorite --- the first book in the series,
Jules et Jim - SUPPORTING BUTLER: Head Butler no longer gets a commission on your Amazon purchases. So the only way you can contribute to Head Butler’s bottom line is to become a patron
Kafka’s Other Trial: The Letters to Felice - “Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. He knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.” So begins The Trial. And with those 22
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day - “The Remains of the Day” won the Booker Prize. The film adaptation was nominated for eight Academy Awards. In 2017 Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize. In his acceptance speech, he
