Month: May 2018

Philip Roth Has Died

Philip Roth died yesterday at the age of 85 from congestive heart failure. And ? what else can be written about Philip Roth that hasn?t already been written? Or that Roth himself hasn?t written? Self-exploration?starring America, Newark, Jewishness, and sex?drove the plot of many of Roth?s novels, most notably Portnoy?s Complaint, where the title character…

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The Bonfire Extinguished

Pamela Paul, editor of the New York Times Book Review, described Tom Wolfe’s death as the “passing of an era.? He was known for coining phrases such as “radical chic”?a derogatory term for pretentious liberals?and “the Me Decade,? which described the self-indulgence of the 1970s. Wolfe once told the Wall Street Journal: “I think every…

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Do No Harm – and don’t skip this book

I just recently finished?Do No Harm: ?stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh, and I have to say I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. ?In fact, it’s the second medically-related book that I finished recently (the prior being?When Breath Becomes Air), and it seems to be…

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