The Man Made of Words (N. Scott Momaday): Book Review
The book is a collection of short pieces that are between or about or in addition to fiction, but not themselves fiction, the kind of book I always hope will illuminate the nuts and...
Category: language
Riddley Walker (book review)
This book is hard to read. The language insists on calling attention to itself, so no stars for “ease” or “comfort”. But I can’t imagine a more effective way of insisting on the fragility,...
Tired Clichés and Fine Familiar Phrases
A few weeks ago LinkedIn invited me to contribute to some teaching materials for writers. The subject was avoiding clichés. As usual, I found myself objecting: it’s true that a badly-placed cliché can stop...
Technical Writing
I was recently surprised by a piece of writing that was, yes, technical without a doubt, but also really good -“good” being, for me, some combination of absorbing, accessible, illuminating, funny, and memorable. Why...
Speaking of Matter: Review of Q.E.D.
Feynman, Richard P, Q.E.D.: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Princeton, 1985 I loved many things about this book, but above all the moments when Feynman let own joy, unabashed wonder at the...
Borges on Writing [book review]
Like many other Anglophone readers, I assumed for a long time that Borges wrote primarily fiction, which meant that I had been overlooking roughly half of his writing. This book of essays (Jorge Luis Borges...