-
Some Notes on a First Reading of The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
PLOT SPOILERS IN THIS. And I have it on good authority he doesn’t plan to write any more novels. This is going to be a “the story’s done. Turn the page” moment. – Rich Wallach, Secretary-Treasurer and founding member of the Cormac McCarthy Society in a reply on the cormacmccarthy.com forums, 11 July 2022 at Continue reading
-
Here I Recommend Cold Enough for Snow (2022) by Jessica Au
I love this ethereal passage from Jessica Au’s Cold Enough for Snow (2022), a short (95 pages), compelling novel of a woman’s trip to Japan with her mother. This comes late in the book. The narrator and her mother have been traveling together in Japan for a couple of weeks, but this passage occurs as Continue reading
-
Henry David Thoreau Hears Some Dogs Barking in Lowell
There was a fire in Lowell, as we judged, this night, and we saw the horizon blazing, and heard the distant alarm-bells, as it were a faint tinkling music borne to these woods. But the most constant and memorable sound of a summer’s night, which we did not fail to hear every night afterward, though Continue reading
-
On “Liberation Day” from Liberation Day (2022) by George Saunders
Plot spoilers here. Some notes on the structure of this story. “Liberation Day” is the title story of Liberation Day, a new collection of nine short stories by American author George Saunders. At 60 pages long, it’s about 25% of the book and twice as long as any of the other pieces in the collection. Continue reading
-
A Review of The Last Samurai Reread by Lee Konstantinou
For me, this is a genre of book to be treasured. One sharp critic reads one novel and its context. Columbia University Press has created an entire series called Rereadings (you can find the link to the series here), which over the last two years has featured short books by critics and scholars about such Continue reading
-
The Opposite of Solipsism – A Review of The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
By Jay Innis Murray “And what is your relation to her?” an Intensive Care Unit receptionist asks a visitor in the last chapter of Tess Gunty’s ambitious and perceptive debut novel The Rabbit Hutch. It’s a question everybody’s been asked by hospital staff, but here is something more, as the question (What Is Your Relation?) Continue reading
-
Herman Melville’s Opinion of Ralph Waldo Emerson
From a letter to Evert Augustus Duyckinck of March 3, 1849. “I was very agreeably disappointed in Mr Emerson. I had heard of him as full of transcendentalisms, myths & oracular gibberish; I had only glanced at a book of his once in Putnam’s store — that was all I knew of him, till I Continue reading
-
Mastery of the Three Shot: Ten Screengrabs from the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?
This film is so good-natured, it’s near impossible to dislike. At the same time, it’s too good-natured to be an all-time great. As I watched it this week, I noticed how the Coen brothers and cinematographer Roger Deakins employ the three shot several times in the movie for masterly comic effect. A three shot is Continue reading
-
On Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Funeral
It was, by all accounts I’ve found, a beautiful day. Late in May, after a week of rain in Concord, it was a sunny day of blue skies. Nathaniel Hawthorne had died on May 19, 1864 while traveling in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with his Bowdoin College friend, the former US President Franklin Continue reading
-
Used Bookstore Haul (Delillo, Melville, Hawthorne and Doctorow) 9.16.22
Today’s best find at the used bookstore was a first edition of Libra by Don DeLillo for $5.00. Got the entire stack for under $20. The Blithedale Romance by Hawthorne, Pierre by Melville, and The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow included. 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.
Read my novel here: https://tinyurl.com/p98jtu7c
Recent Posts
- A Review of The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
- Stealing Einstein’s Underpants – A Review of The Delegation (2025) by Avner Landes
- A Review of On the Calculation of Volume 1 (2024) by Solvej Balle
- A Review of The Cannibal Owl (2025) by Aaron Gwyn
- A Review of Every Arc Bends Its Radian (2024) by Sergio De La Pava
Talking Big 