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Patricia Highsmith has always been one of my favorite novelists. I count more than 12-15 of her books on my shelves: novels, short-story collections, biographies. I began with her novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, maybe forty years ago. I can’t remember if I read it in college or after, but it just may be…
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I wish this wasn’t the case, but I found it nearly impossible to write about T.J. English’s historic account of Havana in the 1950s without mentioning Godfather 2. I mean T.J. certainly does. I’m talking about Mafiso Meyer Lansky’s birthday party atop the Hotel Nacional, the most prestigious hotel in all Havana. This actually happened,…
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If someone asked me how I would classify Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers, I just wouldn’t know what to say. It’s not the kind of book I can easily group with other books on my shelves here in Mexicali. I mean Rachel K is all over the place with this one. From the beginning…
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Last week, I read a book called Giant Love. Giant, as in James Dean's last movie. On the bookcover, Jimmy D is seated in the backseat of a vintage car in the middle of a barren cotton field. In this movie, he plays Jett Rink, a poverty-stricken farmhand, who works for an arrogant Texas…
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Way back when I was In grad school, I read a lot of Shakespeare, Medieval Romance, French Poetry, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe. Whatever I was told to read, I read, probably two or three times over, for I certainly was not among the smartest students in the room. When my professors said to…
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What I like most in this book is to see first-time novelist Rachel Kushner make her own rules. That’s what I’ve always heard is best thing to do in any writing workshop I’ve ever participated in – I mean, this is fiction. When it comes down to it, the job of a fiction…
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Nearly fifty years ago, I began my first semester at college at UC Santa Barbara, and if my math is correct, that means I was about the same age as most of my students are now. One of my first elective classes was called something like “Pop Culture History.” Pop Culture was a…
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Above: Jay's Practice Musical Annotation – David Bowie – "Changes" This week I provide my students with THREE annotation assignments. As they work with their text, I want them to consider all of the ways they can connect with what they are reading. Here are some suggestions that will help them with their annotations:…
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I have read my share of Detective Mario Conde, the protagonist of Cuban author Leonardo Padura’s novel Transparency of Time. I first discovered him in the Netflix telenovela Las cuatro estaciones – The Four Seasons. I watched all the episodes in Spanish before I bought the Padura novels they are based upon. Mario C. is…
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Over Winter Break, I read the Graham Greene novel The Heart of the Matter about the most MISERABLE man, living in the most MISERABLE place, married to the most MISERABLE woman. Major Scobie is the assistant commissioner of police in a lawless, hopelessly corrupt Sierra Leone. He’s been here fifteen years, and he knows nothing…