Book Review
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The Secret Engine of the World: A Review of The Fraud (2023) by Zadie Smith
By Jay Innis Murray … whilst coiled behind all gazes the great Worm of Slavery. — Pynchon, Mason & Dixon The curious reader need not wonder why Zadie Smith wrote a historical novel for her sixth, The Fraud, which was published in September of last year. She gave us her reasons. Her career has been… Continue reading
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Is a Transcendently Beautiful Place Not to Be Ours? A Review of Ember Days (2024) by Mary Gilliland
By Jay Innis Murray Mary Gilliland is the author of two award-winning poetry collections: The Ruined Walled Castle Garden (2020) and The Devil’s Fools (2022). Her new collection, Ember Days, will be published on March 1 by Cod Hill Press. The question that makes my review’s title is the title of a beautiful poem about… Continue reading
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2023 Year in Reading and Reviews
By Jay Innis Murray So, that was 2023. I finished 60 books this year. Some of them were short, but 60 is a high number for me. My website does not seem to generate much browsing. That’s either a bug or a feature. I’ll let somebody else decide, but I’ll use this opportunity to link… Continue reading
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Here I recommend Grand Tour (2023) by Elisa Gonzalez
My friend William Flesch writes in the Los Angeles Review of Books, “Elisa Gonzalez may very well be a great poet, and, like all great poets, she is haunted by poetry—the poetry of Homer, of John Ashbery, of… Marilyn Monroe…” This is in his superb review (link at bottom of page) of Grand Tour, the… Continue reading
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To See the World Estranged Through Another Writer’s Mind – A Review of Other Minds and Other Stories (2023) by Bennett Sims
By Jay Innis Murray I’m feeling unusually self-conscious as I prepare this appreciation of the new collection of stories from Bennett Sims called Other Minds and Other Stories. See, I’m an underliner. I write in the books I read. I leave, too, significant quantities of margin notes. Some of my book-loving friends have an almost… Continue reading
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All they know of me is my voice. A Review of Tremor by Teju Cole.
By Jay Innis Murray Many contemporary critics fail to understand that the term autofiction suggests slipperiness, an estrangement of the I-narrator, who may or may not have the same name as the author, so that the space of the work can become a space of freedom. – Kate Zambreno WG Sebald insisted his narrative works… Continue reading
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A Review of The Sitter (2023) by Angela O’Keeffe
By Jay Innis Murray I could not help wondering last evening whether my attempt to describe the woman in the red armchair had given you any clear idea of it. – Rilke in a letter of October 23, 1907 Of the risks that paid off during the research and development era for English-language fiction (i.e.… Continue reading
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Mars is ghost country. A review of The Strange (2023) by Nathan Ballingrud.
By Jay Innis Murray “Mars is ghost country.” (Annabelle Crisp) An alternative history can be the launch pad for a ripping adventure yarn. The tradition is old and may seem played out, but, as a counter to that feeling, one of my favorite novels of the last decade is Paul Park’s underappreciated All Those Vanished… Continue reading
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The Afterlife of Anecdotes: A Review of The Belan Deck (2023) by Matt Bucher
By Jay Innis Murray “An attempt to smuggle reality into anything, into a PowerPoint deck.” — The Belan Deck “Plotless. Characterless. Yet seducing the reader into turning pages nonetheless.” — David Markson, This Is Not a Novel The scaffolding of character and plot are here in The Belan Deck, but they can be summed up… Continue reading
About Talking Big
All posts by Jay Innis Murray.
Always on the lookout for new books to review. Please drop me a line at grashupfer@gmail.com or say hi on Twitter, Mastodon or Blue Sky.
Recent Posts
- The Secret Engine of the World: A Review of The Fraud (2023) by Zadie Smith
- Is a Transcendently Beautiful Place Not to Be Ours? A Review of Ember Days (2024) by Mary Gilliland
- 2023 Year in Reading and Reviews
- Here I recommend Grand Tour (2023) by Elisa Gonzalez
- To See the World Estranged Through Another Writer’s Mind – A Review of Other Minds and Other Stories (2023) by Bennett Sims
Talking Big 