“There was the teasing and impossible desire to imitate the petty pride of sparrows wallowing and flouncing in the red dust of country roads.”

Richard Wright, who was born in 1908, describes the “brace of mountainlike, spotted, black-and-white horses clopping down a dusty road through clouds of powdered clay” in his memoir Black Boy. He finds beauty in the “green leaves rustling with a rainlike sound” and in identifying with “the sight … Read More

“This is the story of a crisis in our lives . . . during a journey alone.”

With sequels, come skepticism, and when the first in the series won the Pulitzer Prize, it’s tempting to expect just a replay of what worked well before. One critic called for a better evaluation of American Life; others said it’s a mixed blessing of a book. I’m in the … Read More