Mark Helprin, a great American novelist
Friday, May 30, was a banner day I’ll long remember.
A soft Carolina-blue sky topped the Virginia hills and fields as I drove to novelist Mark Helprin’s farm, Windrow, in the countryside north of Charlottesville.
A comic read that defies pigeon-holing
In the course of human events, there does come a time when comedy is in order. Such was a time last month for me. I was choosing a book to read and I needed comedy.
“Morte D’Urban,” a novel by J. F. Powers (Doubleday, 1962), had been recommended by a trusted friend. It is brilliantly funny and, how wonderful, much more than that.
A riveting, true story out of China
A friend of mine suggested “Wild Swans” (Simon & Schuster, Reprint Edition, 2003, 538 pages) and to say it did not disappoint would be an understatement. This family history is written by Jung Chang, who recounts the lives of her grandmother, mother and finally herself.
Asheville poet focuses on the ‘Now’
As a practitioner and student of poetry all my life, I’ve noticed that while there is a lot of poetry written well and with talented reach, at the same time, there is little current poetry that I’ve experienced that one would classify as being “wise” or “transcendent.”
Saddle up and take a ride West
It’s the spring of 1873 in the Wyoming Territory, and U.S. Marshal Tim Colter and his grizzled mentor and best friend, mountain man Jed Reno, are hunting down some train robbers when they come across a man dying of gunshot wounds. The victim turns out to be a Secret Service agent who as he breathes his last says, “President Grant … assassination … Dugan … trust nobody.”
Thoreau found God in the natural world
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey,
but rather spiritual beings on a human journey.”
Teilhard de Chardin
— from: “Thoreau’s God”
A look at the 30s glitterati in ‘Rules of Civility’
Having read and relished Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow,” I picked up the first novel he published, “Rules of Civility” (Penguin Books, 2012, 368 pages) prepared to enjoy it as well. Unfortunately, some satisfying experiences elude repetition.
The search for origins and identity
Having grown up in proximity to a Cherokee community (Little Snowbird in Graham County), I’m familiar with and sensitive to the history and the psychology of Native peoples who have been marginalized and worse from their cultural roots and their homelands.
Hoofing it from DC to NYC
“The simple act of walking and taking in what I saw and puzzling over what I encountered as I went. The rhythm and simplicity of it.”
— Neil King Jr.
Is our therapeutic culture damaging children?
Search online for “are more teens today suffering emotional problems,” and a boatload of websites pop to your command. Explore a few of these sites, and you’ll find psychologists and counselors of all kinds writing about the mental and emotional stresses faced by 21st century teens; 32% of these young people, for example, have an anxiety disorder, and 1 in 5 experience depression.