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December 2007

Living Life to the Fullest

Sunday, December 30, 2007

"The coyote woman will come from Montana with the heavier snows. The hunter will call you on the day of the solstice to say ‘He has a friend in town,’ and can’t see you. He’ll leave you hanging your Christmas lights. He’ll give new meaning to the phrase, ‘Longest night of the year.’" – Pam Houston , “How to Talk to a Hunter.”
A lively quartet charts uncertain love; an encounter with an angel; a sensual excursion; and an American humorist’s excellent French adventure.


Postcards From the Edge

Sunday, December 23, 2007



"You don’t know what it’s like to lose something forever. It will make you do anything, even lie to people you love, if you think you can reclaim even a fraction of that thing." – Ann Beattie, “What Was Mine.”
Talking with dogs; imaginary gardens, and what a father is, in three tales by eclectic authors.


Hints of madness

Sunday, December 16, 2007



"If someone in this country is crazy enough to climb up a tree, you can be sure it is Sampath.". – Kiran Desai, “The Sermon in the Guava Tree.”
Ordinary people cross the threshold in tales by Booker Prize-winner Kiran Desai and Etgar Keret.


Appetites for Life

Sunday, December 09, 2007



“It came upon me that I had misspent my life. All those years laboring over words, words, words. And for what? What difference did it make to anyone? Wh cared what I had to say? I had lost the appetite for telling.”
– Mary Gordon, “Storytelling”

A jaded writer, and an aging gourmand, revive their appetites for living.


A Gallant Writer Celebrated

Sunday, December 02, 2007

“In the Giscardian late 1970's, Grippes was welcomed as the writer who had re-established the male as hero, whose left-wing heartbeat could be heard, loyally thumping, behind the armor of his right-wing traditional prose…The fitfulness of voters is such that, having got the government they wanted, they were now reading nothing but the right-wing press. Perhaps a steady right-wing heartbeat ought to set the cadence for a left-wing outlook, with a complex, bravely conservative heroine contained within the slippery but unyielding walls of left-wing style.”
– Mavis Gallant, “Grippes et Poche”
The intricate beauty of Mavis Gallant’s fiction is showcased in this tribute program.