Steven G. Kellman
A New Book on the Sutherland Springs Shooting Explores Resilience, Forgiveness, and Grace
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Valianty Fits Much of Texas History Into a Single Book
Stephen Harrigan forgoes a sweeping narrative and instead opts for finely etched anecdotes to explain the state’s epic history.
Alaska leads in area, California in population, but Texas surpasses all other states in swagger, strut, and self-regard. This (partly) explains why the catalog of books about the state is so vast, and why those books tend to sprawl. T.R. … Read More
‘The Secrets We Kept’ is a Finely-Structured Story of Secrets, Spies, and Secretaries
Lara Prescott’s sparkling debut novel is based on one of the Cold War’s strangest stories: a covert operation to spread a banned book across the Soviet Union.
When I taught American literature at a Soviet university in 1980, I managed to bring along some books that were banned by the Kremlin: Catch-22, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Slaughterhouse-Five. I passed the limited copies on to my … Read More
‘The Weil Conjectures’ Rewards the Intellectually Adventurous
Part biography, part memoir, Karen Olsson’s new book traces the extraordinary lives of a famous mathematician and his philosopher sister.
The Latin root of the word conjecture, conicere, means to throw things together. Think of Jackson Pollock splashing different paints onto a canvas and hoping for some kind of coherent result. In mathematics, the term refers to a proposition offered … Read More
Octavio Solis’ ‘Retablos’ Recounts a ‘Beautiful, Messy’ Youth on the Border
Though its title evokes Mexican folk art, Retablos is closer in effect to that of French pointillism. Its small dabs of vivid color produce a brilliant cumulative effect.
Describing his memories of childhood, 60-year-old Octavio Solis says that they come to him like “a set of retablos, votive images painted on old beaten tin, marked with the mystery of being.” In Mexican folk art, retablos are offerings of … Read More
In ‘God Save Texas,’ Lawrence Wright Explains the Lone Star State to Outsiders
The latest entry in the ever-popular explaining-Texas genre, “God Save Texas” is a rambling, impressionistic record of ambivalence.
In 1845, when the United States was hotly debating the imminent annexation of Texas and the prospect of a war with Mexico, Abraham Lincoln wrote to a constituent: “I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested … Read More
Bill McKibben’s ‘Radio Free Vermont’ Is an Activist’s Lark
Not so much plotted as rendered as a Hardy Boys caper, “Radio Free Vermont” is a fond fantasy of liberal values.
Not so much plotted as rendered as a Hardy Boys caper, “Radio Free Vermont” is a fond fantasy of liberal values. Read More
In ‘Texas Blood,’ a Ramble Through Borderland History
Texas expat Roger D. Hodge returns home to discover a “palimpsest of lost and vanishing lifeways.”
Texas expat Roger D. Hodge returns home to discover a “palimpsest of lost and vanishing lifeways.” Read More
Ezra Greenspan Rescues William Wells Brown from Obscurity in New Biography
Except in households steeped in African-American history, William Wells Brown is not a household name. Ezra Greenspan hopes to change that with a new biography. Read More
Robert Zarestsky Reminds Us Why Albert Camus is Still Worth Reading
Zaretsky identifies Camus as a moralist, not a moralizer, one who poses questions rather than imposes answers. Read More