New Review at CS2

I have a new review of The Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde available at CommonSense2.com:
http://commonsense2.com/2011/09/book-reviews/the-complete-fairy-tales-of-oscar-wilde/
JPC

New Piece in CS2

My new review of Patti Smith's Just Kids and Judy Linn's Patti Smith 1969-1976 has just been published by CommonSense2.com. It is available here:

http://commonsense2.com/2011/08/book-reviews/just-kids-by-patti-smith-and-patti-smith-1969-1976-by-judy-linn/

JPC

New Review @ CS2.com

I'm happy to inform you of my new review at CS2 of Simon Winchester's recently published book "The Alice Behind Wonderland." You'll find a link to it here:
http://commonsense2.com/2011/07/book-reviews/the-alice-behind-wonderland-by-simon-winchester/

New Review

I'm happy to say that CS2 is back up and running. My first new review is Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Dunker (1996).

Link to the Review:
http://commonsense2.com/2011/06/book-reviews/hallucinating-foucault/

More to come soon

J.

Last Update from CS2

A review of Steve Martin's novel The Pleasure of my Company:
http://commonsense2.com/2010/12/book-reviews/the-pleasure-of-my-company-by-steve-martin/
This will be the last review I will write for CommonSense2.com as the magazine is, unfortunately, shutting down. I would like to thank my friend Chuck Brown for giving me the opportunity to work as a reviewer for him, and hope that we can get together again real soon.

JPC

New Reviews

The first of the month means new publications at CommonSense2.com:

A review of Wild Nights by Joyce Carol Oates (Just in time for Halloween)
http://commonsense2.com/2010/10/book-reviews/wild-nights-by-joyce-carol-oates/

and
A review of In Rough Country also by Joyce Carol Oates
http://commonsense2.com/2010/10/book-reviews/in-rough-country-by-joyce-carol-oates/

JPC

New Reviews

In my newest pieces at CommonSense2.com, I review:

Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai
http://commonsense2.com/2010/08/book-reviews/the-last-samurai-by-helen-dewitt/

The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges
http://commonsense2.com/2010/08/book-reviews/the-book-of-imaginary-beings-by-jorge-luis-borges/

and

Bech at Bay by John Updike, the final Bech book:
http://commonsense2.com/2010/08/book-reviews/bech-at-bay-by-john-updike/

JPC

Favorite Borges

Found this little number tucked away in my stacks; will review it in the new issue of CS2

JPC

E. M. Forster (misread)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Toibin-t.html?_r=1&ref=books

Colm Toibin, author and critic, reviewed a new biography of E. M. Forster for the New York Times a few weeks ago and, as I was reading it over, I began to wonder, why does it appear that Toibin is misreading or incorrectly reflecting on Forster. The incorrect reflection? That after "A Passage to India" Forster wrote

"merely a few short biographies, some essays and literary
journalism."

Nowhere mentioned in the article are the radio talks he gave for the BBC (transcripts of which were published a few years back, reviewed by Zadie Smith in the New York Review of Books [Smith is E. M. Forster's most powerful disciple, perhaps a tad too influenced by him]). His essays fill several books. And to say that

"he wrote no more novels"

is technically wrong. He never finished writing the novels, but he did continue to write. There are fragments of two books, one of which was published in 2003 (Arctic Summer). And don't forget the libretto to Billy Budd. I know that Toibin is a devotee of Forster as well, and I can only hope that this was a slight oversight.

Also from the New York Times, a new biography of Maugham is reviewed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Leavitt-t.html?ref=books

Most Intriguing

JPC

New to Review

"Nox" by Anne Carson

My Next Reviews

JPC

Two New Pieces in CommonSense2.com

This month I have two new pieces in CommonSense2.com.

The first is a review of Alice Walker's poetry collection A Poem Travelled Down My Arm:
http://commonsense2.com/2010/07/book-reviews/a-poem-traveled-down-my-arm-by-alice-walker/
Alice Walker and I have had a troubled history (my review of her collection Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth is the only 100% negative review I have ever given), and so I found myself surprised when I enjoyed the new collection of poems. Indeed, I have great respect for Walker's recent work, which seems to be a return to form after a dry spell.

The second piece is titled "The McLaughlin Group (with Monica?)":
http://commonsense2.com/2010/07/cultural-criticism/the-mclaughlin-group-with-monica/
In which I attempt to figure out what Monica Crowley was put on the McLaughlin round table and beg Tony Blankley to come back.

JPC

New Projects

Working on a few new things which require my full attention and so I may be posting intermittently for a while. Having very little time what with running around, yet I shall have two new pieces in CommonSense2.com in the next issue and I am also planning four new pieces for the one after that, a double issue.

I'm looking into new things, new possibilities of publishing. I realize that I cannot keep publishing in just one place--I must expand my range as I writer.

As such, I may be coming and going. But, never fear, if I find something interesting, I'll let you know. I'll also keep posting links to new pieces when they appear.

JPC

Bech at Bay

As I work my way through the final Bech volume, I find that Updike knew full well that this would be the final volume and, as such, is paying tribute to Bech. The Protestant's Jewish alter-ego is constantly reflecting on the aspects of his past which we already knew about, having read the last two books. Also, we can see semi-touching portraits of Updike's contemporaries, including a self-referential section of "Bech Presides" in which Updike and several others are suggested as nominees for an arts and culture group called "The Forty". Semi-touching portraits as in, some are sympathetic characters with fatal flaws and others are flawed characters who are fatally sympathetic.

The quizzicle raised eyebrow of Henry Bech on the back illustration of the book presents the attitude of Bech through this Quasi-novel, eyebrows raised and lips in a slight, knowing sneer. After awhile, one gets tired of the sneer, but you still find yourself becoming more nostalgic and quizzicle with Bech as the stories go on.

JPC

New Review: Bech Is Back by John Updike

This is my review of John Updike's "Bech is Back", part two of the Henry Bech series and part three (or four, I haven't decided yet) of my series of Bech reviews.

http://commonsense2.com/2010/06/book-reviews/bech-is-back-by-john-updike/

JPC

Martin Amis

The Pregnant Widow is either being heralded as Mart's return from bad writing to the good stuff we remember him for, or as absolute crap, just a notch above the dreaded Yellow Dog. It all depends on whose reviews you read.

As for me, I'll probably be having a review of up for CS2.com coming out over the summer. It is a good summer read, even though the territory is already well-trod. Michel Houellebecq comes to mind when I read some of the passages about physical peculiarities.

Still, there are some original moments, though I'm not quite sure yet how my review will go down.

JPC

Stephanie Barron betrays Virginia Woolf

Having just finished this morning the novel "The White Garden" by Stephanie Barron, I can now understand why my mother never finished reading through Barron's Jane Austin Mystery series. The books, while somewhat lighthearted and enjoyable at times, lack all academic background, paint over the obvious, center around duller than dull and dumber than dumb characters and contain only occasional moments of insight into anything other than Ms. Barron's own dwindling imagination.

The portrait of Virginia Woolf (and her lover, Vita Sackville-West) is a cardboard cut out from "The Hours", running around like a paranoid little bird from one person to the next, demanding to be saved while attempting her own distruction. The character of Margaux, however, is the most interesting of all the characters--as a parody of a shrill feminist scholar, she actually does make a few things clear and helps the story along alright, but other than that, she's worthless, as is the rest of the lot who appear in the book. She stands for one of the many (incorrect) versions of Woolf's personal life floating about academia.

Modern writers, attempting to delve into the mind of a woman writer whose whole buisness was that of delving into the mind and it's failings, fail in their efforts because they only paint Virginia Woolf with one brush--she was always the mad woman in a long, heavy coat, chain smoking and talking to herself, never anything else. She did go through periods of bliss, you know. Vita was a wonderful influence in her life, as was Leonard. The three of them were very happy for some time, not that you would know it from Ms. Barron.

However, I'll probably keep a copy of the book, just for my collection of Woolfinalia.

JPC.

Michiko and Mart

Michiko Kakutani and Martin Amis have always had a kind of love/hate relationship; now that "The Pregnant Widow" has been released in America, Michiko has decided to turn on the hate side of their relationship. She envokes the dreaded "Yellow Dog" (which I have a signed copy of, by the way) and compares it to this novel, with this novel coming out at a marginally better critical standpoint.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/books/11book.html?ref=books

I'm still going to buy a copy for myself, though, to understand what's going on.

JPC.

My Best

I'm going to include here links to my favorite pieces of work that I've written for CommonSense2.com.



I've been writing for CS2.com since 2008 and it is my favorite place to write. The founder of the magazine, Chuck Brown, used to own a bookstore in Kutztown until he had to move out last year. Chuck Brown gave me my first ever job in the literary world and I will be forever grateful to him.



A short review of Cormac McCarthy's most recent play The Sunset Limited which I gave the subtitle "Est Cormac McCarthy En Attendant Godot?" http://commonsense2.com/2008/06/book-reviews/a-slow-train-comin%e2%80%99-the-sunset-limited-by-cormac-mccarthy/



A review of Gore Vidal's bestselling sin-sation Myra Breckenridge

http://commonsense2.com/2008/08/book-reviews/myra-breckenridge-by-gore-vidal/



Joyce Carol Oates' Beasts in the October 2008 issue (just in time for Halloween)

http://commonsense2.com/2008/10/book-reviews/beasts-by-joyce-carol-oates/

My Obituary for John Updike, titled "Writer at Rest":

http://commonsense2.com/2009/02/book-reviews/john-updike-writer-at-rest/

"With Love, From E. E. Cummings", my true story of love, loss and modern poetry

http://commonsense2.com/2009/06/essays/with-love-from-e-e-cummings/

And my favorite commentary, "Walt Whitman and the Mad Men"

http://commonsense2.com/2009/12/cultural-criticism/walt-whitman-and-the-mad-men/

JPC.

New Review

Here is my new review at CommonSense2.com, published on May 1st, 2010.

http://commonsense2.com/2010/05/book-reviews/the-professor-and-the-madman-by-simon-winchester/

It is a review of "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester, all about the making of the Oxford English Dictionary.

JPC