Tag: fiction
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The Dangers of Literary Hero Worship
In a previous post I praised John Updike’s writing and the story he told in his 2006 novel Terrorist. I still hold that all I said then is true. Yet now I’ve just finished his 1996 novel In the Beauty of the Lilies, and I have mixed feelings. With a career that started in the…
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Revisiting John Updike
I just finished reading John Updike’s Terrorist. Written in 2006, the shadow of 9/11 was still great over America. In this novel, Updike follows the development of a religious young man, Ahmed, and his journey toward terrorism through mentors using the words of the Quran that served as grooming by those wishing to punish America…
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The Evolving Nature of Artistic Growth
Many years ago I read Richard Russo’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Empire Falls. It takes place in a small New England town that is well worn and probably going to continue deteriorating. Lots of blue collar class issues and pitiable characters. But the writing is rich and one can’t help but care for the characters.…
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Martyr, by Kaveh Akbar
I just finished reading Kaveh Akbar’s novel Martyr. My copy of book has more than 25 effusive praises from mostly (but not entirely) east or west coast reviewers. So here again I find the number a bit overstated and feel like the inclusion of all this “doth protest too much.” And yet, not all the…
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Some Links
Here are some links to my books, reviews, and to a couple of literary accounts. You can also download from Apple Books to the app on your Apple device: https://bookfinity.com/reader-type-results-share/Bookworm/Time%20Traveler/Lifelong%20Learner/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/rodney%20nelsestuen/_/N-8q8 Rodney Nelsestuen on Amazon Too Many Stones, A Novel Neighbors, A Novel Quiet Desperation, A Novella Why Belize? A Novel Kirkus Books – Reviews…
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Why Belize: A Novel of New Beginnings
My novel Why Belize will be available within the next couple of months. Kirkus Reviews gives it a “Buy it” recommendation. “Nelsestuen has a musical sense of language., his sentences capturing the rhythms of both the landscape and the people who move through it…” Kirkus Reviews. Here’s some insight to the novel: Forty-seven-year-old “Eileen Sologoski…
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James Baldwin and Why We Should Care
While today is 9/11 and the world is once again remembering a great evil that took place and the deaths of almost 3,000 people at the hands of terrorists, I am focused on a different aspect of ‘the tragic’ as I have recently read James Baldwin. During this past summer I read both “The Fire…
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Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
German author Jenny Erpenbeck’s books are slathered with praise and for good reason. She has an impressive body of work and her most recent book won the Booker Prize for fiction. The title, Kairos, means different things but essentially ‘timely’ or ‘at the right time’ or maybe I’ll use my favorite term where Kairos =…
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