The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again by Sven Birkerts is a book of literary criticism looking at the role of time in memoir (duh, I guess). It also explores why memoirs are important and gives a defense of memoir against some of its common criticisms.
As Birkerts explains it, most memoirs have at least one thing in common:
They all, to greater or lesser degree, use the vantage point of the present to gain access to what might be called the hidden narrative of the past. Each is in its own way an account of detection, a realized effort to assemble the puzzle of what happened in the light of subsequent realization.
Title: Understanding Comics Author: Scott McCloud Pages: 215 (hardcover) One Sentence Summary: A non-fiction comic that explores the definitions, history, and vocabulary of comic books. One Sentence Review: Even though reading a comic on comics was a challenge, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in comics that wants to learn more about the [...]
My friend Phil pointed out an article in bitch magazine called “Bite Me (or Don’t)” which is a feministy literary criticism of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Do not read the article if you hate spoilers, the article covers events that happened throughout the entire series. I’m not much worried about spoilers, so I didn’t mind, [...]
In the last few days I’ve read a couple of interesting blog posts/articles about the role of literary criticism and reviews in a changing literature market, and am just getting around to posting about them. The first comes from Jacket Copy, the LA Times Book Blog. The post is called “Being a freelance critic for [...]
