To The Smallest Particle
We can’t dismantle or parse or interrogate the literary world any further—it is time to look up from the microscope and adjust our eyes to what’s left.
Rebecca West: An Extraordinary Career
For a critical piece it is worth remembering that a writer’s contract is always with the reader.
Distant Memories
When I arrive in a city for the first time, my conclusions typically arrive on the next plane.
A Detective's Expertise
To see someone perfect a craft or demonstrate a prowess for anything that’s difficult prods you to get closer, to see it better, to simply keep watching.
The Guilt of the Innocent
He will forever have grand plans for the world, and the world will forever disappoint him with its failures.
A Distortion of Fact
Most contemporary non-fiction books take three hundred pages to tell a one hundred page story.
A Low Dishonest Decade
Later is a word for when you’re feeling sluggish and directionless and just a little bit glum, for when you’re avoiding what you must confront.
Ian McEwan: Against The Novel of Validation
What the reader feels and thinks and has already experienced is what the novel of validation delivers.
Rebecca West at Nuremberg: The World On Trial
If talking about Hitler is the endpoint and forfeit of all political arguments, then references to Nuremberg are the downfall of all legal arguments.
Mark Twain’s White Fence
The most famous white fence in literature requires a new bookshelf.
Specific Judgements
Although you may believe that you don’t judge, everyone judges what they encounter.