July 2009
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The Stephen Foster songbook was a staple of my childhood. My mother sitting at the old Hardman baby grand, sang "Camptown Ladies" and "O Susanna" and "Old Black Joe." But times change and Foster was pushed to the sidelines years ago. Too racist, too sentimental, too 'soft'. It's undeniable that the lyrics of many of…
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Sharon was here yesterday. She has a new method to keep the raccoons and the rats out of the food bins. "The rats gnaw through the plastic garbage cans, the raccons open them unless I bungee them real tight. Galvinized works, but what we do now is buy junk refrigerators or freezers. The rats can't get into them. Of…
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In Terrorist, Updike takes us inside the head of a young,malleable, soft-spoken Islamist fanatic. The protrayal is persuasive, in part because the horror bigotry is understated and casual. It's quite a feat of imagination on the author's part. It's a good novel — a page-turner, as they say. It's most remarkable feature is that the hero of the…
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I stopped at one of those highway gas-station convenience stores a few weeks ago, searching for some invigorating M&Ms. I couldn't find them, but I said to myself, this is America and I'm an American, and if there's one thing I know it's that there are going to be M&Ms somewhere in this quickstop. I poked around…
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I've shamefully neglected the writings of John Updike. I read the first Rabbit novel when it appeared in 1960 and was struck by its vigor and authenticity. A talent to watch, I said to myself — but then I lost track. I loved one of the Bech books, devoured on an airline ride from somewhere to…