Tag: book-review

  • Con Artists, Scam Artists, Escape Artists: My Zenias and Atwood’s The Robber Bride

    “You might become a detective. You might become a con artist yourself. Or, a blend of the two: you might become a novelist.” Margaret Atwood on writing “The history of the world, my sweet Oh, Mr. Todd, ooh, Mr. Todd What does it tell? Is who gets eaten, and who gets to eat” Atwood’s recent…

  • Kathy Reichs’s Déja Dead: A Great Series Begins

    This week has been a Faulknerian one for me: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” I’ve experienced multiple forms of déja vu all over again, to quote Yogi Berra. So it’s a perfect time to return to the 1997 first novel in Kathy Reichs’s celebrated series of crime novels featuring forensic anthropologist…

  • Helen Baxendale in Poirot, Marple, and P.D. James

    Most non-UK viewers likely remember actor Helen Baxendale from her unfortunate role as Emily, the Englishwoman so unsuitably affianced to the appallingly selfish and immature Ross in Friends. David Schwimmer is a terrific actor, and I enjoy his portrayal of the worst person in the series: an academic who dates his student (oof–well past the…