Author: Tony Herman

“We say of some things that they can’t be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do — we do it all the time.”

Munro croppedThese are the final sentences in Alice Munro’s collection of short stories, Dear Life, which won the Nobel Prize.  I believe that the character is lying and that she wishes she could forgive herself. I’m sure that other readers have come to different conclusions. These stories are complex, with characters … Read More

“Reflection is a mighty endeavor…no occupation is more powerful or more feeble, depending on the soul”

Montagne croppedHow come some people who write about themselves are bores, and others are fascinating? Michel de Montaigne, an inventor who lived in the 1500s, is fascinating.  Instead of keeping a record of what he did, he recorded what he was thinking about.  He wrote:  “I am not portraying … Read More

“There’s a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons — that oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes –“

 

Dickensoncropped 2Where would we be, during difficult winters like this one, without the help of Emily Dickinson? This poem ends with these lines:
“When it comes, the Landscape listens —
Shadows — hold their breath —
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
On the look of Death — ”… Read More

“I gave them all the truth and none of the honesty.”

McCamm cropped

How much honesty do you want from a novel? I’m at a point now where I am bored by action (isn’t that what TV is for?) and instead look for books that uncover surprising revelations. This one  does that.  McCann goes for the artery with an astonishing number of protagonists … Read More

“Maybe imagination is just a form of memory, locked deep in . . . eternity.”

wallace croppedThe poet Ron Wallace can be described as “part Emily Dickinson and part Harpo Marx” because of his dark wit, which you can see in the opening of this sonnet:

The Bad Sonnet

It stayed up late, refused to go to bed,
and when it did it sang loud songs … Read More

“To think I believed you were charming. It turns out you’re just a writer.”

bausch cropLike many of us, Richard Bausch is a worrier.  In an interview he said, “In every
circumstance, all my life, my mind shows me the possible bad outcome: someone walks down steps, and before I can do anything to head the image off, I see a fall, a catastrophe.”  Many … Read More

“Education and safety are unavoidably interrelated.”

Lake croppedShould colleges take care of students?  How? To what extent? When affordable education is a priority, is it also important to install sirens, locks on classroom doors,  and help students with mental illness?  I can’t think of anyone who can provide more interesting ideas on these issues than Peter Lake… Read More

“Whoever you are come travel with me. Traveling with me you find what never tires.”

Whitman croppedThe poem continues: “The earth never tires.  The earth is rude, silent incomprehensible at first. . . be not discouraged, keep on. . . there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.”  I once wrote these words on my kitchen wall so that my kids would grow up … Read More

“No one was coming toward the house yet, but things wouldn’t stay the way they were much longer.”

Beattie croppedWhen Ann Beattie met John Updike, he said “You figured out how to write an entirely different kind of story.” Her stories were “the” stories my English department discussed in the 1980s because they were so  revolutionary.  T. Coraghessan Boyle wrote in the New York Times, “Her stories are … Read More

“. . . Heaven may be only the mind’s fear of the wonders it imagines. . .”

Digges croppedIf you read only one poem today (or this week, or this month), let it be “Ancestral Lights” by Deborah Digges. Here is more of the sentence that the quotation comes from: “And though I know now that heaven may be only the mind’s fear of the … Read More

“His strong point [was] his odd ability to fall feetfirst into the little pocket of someone else’s world for those few seconds.”

Strout croppedMy favorite book of 2013 is about three grown-up siblings and their families, all of whom have one important thing in common: they aren’t where they wanted to be.  They don’t feel at home in the choices that they’ve made. What’s remarkable about this novel is the way we see … Read More

We want to walk into the pages…the closer we get, the better.

fadiman croppedWhat kind of reader are you?  Anne Fadiman gives a book-length answer to that question in Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader.  She tells stories  about her passion for reading books.  For example, she describes the thrill of going to a place that a book describes, then reading … Read More

Some time when the river is ice ask me what mistakes I have made.

stafford croppedThis is the first line from a well-loved poem by William Stafford. He often writes about things that appear to be calm, but aren’t.  I think his poems are like that, too.  At first glance, they don’t seem very challenging. But it’s a mistake to read quickly because you can … Read More

“Even then I sensed this . . . would be at the core of my imagination for the rest of my life.”

PamukcropThis novel is a collection of beautiful sentences about self-discovery.  For example: “It was during these days that I first began to feel fissures opening in my soul, wounds of the sort that plunge some men into a deep, dark, lifelong loneliness for which there is no cure.” (52)  When … Read More

“Trust that the presence of long-held stories in your memories are there for reasons beyond entertainment.”

shadiow bookJohn Dewey, one of my heroes, said that you don’t learn from experience — you learn from thinking about your experience. That’s the idea that What Our Stories Teach Us is based on. Linda K. Shadiow outlines a three-step process of description, interpretation, and analysis. Is this sort of reflection … Read More