Review by Tobias Carroll Madeleine McDonnell There Is Something Inside, It Wants to Get Out (Rescue Press, 79 p.) The three stories in Madeleine McDonnell’s short collection There Is Something Inside, It Wants to Get Out traffic in unease, upending familiar scenarios and tautly inverting certain expectations. These are slow-burning, unexpected explorations of family and morality. “Wife” derives its friction from the ways in which notions of family and matrimony are defined and challenged; “Physical Education” has a plot that […]
Bites: Book Review Highlights, Kakutani Two-Step, Required Reading, the Millennials, and Why Our Media is Getting Scolded
Celebrated artist of the female form, Peter Paul Rubens, was “a man of controlled appetites, with a modest disposition and a reputation for tact and discretion.” He was also a diplomat, spy, and peace-maker, according to Mark Lamster’s new book “Master of Shadows.” Other Book Review Highlights: A history, slightly obsessive, of Strunk & White’s little style book.(NYT) Michael Chabon’s new essays: “First Person Masculine”?(NYT) Has anyone else noticed that James Joyce has been tryin’ to change a lot of […]