Tag: Essays
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“Does This Make Me Funny?” by Zosia Mamet
I reached for Zosia Mamet’s “Does This Make Me Funny” out of curiosity. I like reading essays very much, and earlier I read a collection of essays written by her father. This time, I expected a somewhat lighthearted collection of anecdotes about Hollywood, written from the perspective of someone younger, a new generation. Zosia’s status…
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“Backstage” by Donna Leon
“Backstage” is Donna Leon’s second memoir, following her excellent “Wandering Through Life.” In it, we get another glimpse into the author’s life, this time in a shorter, less structured way. This is not a profound, highbrow autobiography, but rather a conversation over a cup of coffee, where you listen to your friend’s stories. It is…
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“Everywhere an Oink Oink” by David Mamet
Someone once said that an experience we take from watching a stage play is always more profound than watching a movie. Many years ago, I watched a performance of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which made an impression more potent than any of David Mamet’s movies. To this day, I consider his command of…
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“The Upstairs Delicatessen” by Dwight Garner
Dear reader, consider yourself to be warned – while reading “The Upstairs Delicatessen,” you’ll undoubtedly, at some point, head to the kitchen to eat either a slice of cheese or a piece of chocolate or even feel strangely invigorated to make yourself a pasta dish or whip up a favorite cake. This excellent book by…
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“Tabula Rasa” by John McPhee
At the beginning of his “Tabula Rasa,” John McPhee recalls when he was invited to lunch with the famous playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder. Asked what he was working on, Wilder replied that he was cataloging plays of Lope de Vega. About four hundred and thirty-one plays by Lope de Vega survived, and Thornton Wilder…
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“Why Read” by Will Self
Why read? Reading is such a personal, unique experience for humans. And we vary significantly in what we decide to read. The new collection of essays by Will Self will undoubtedly make a reader reflect on the reading process – that is, on absorbing the text created by another human being, based on that person’s…
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In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing, by Elena Ferrante
I noticed Elena Ferrante’s book In the Margins in a nearby bookstore at the same time when I was watching the HBO series My Brilliant Friend based on Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels. Beautiful cover, thin book, interesting author, supporting the local bookstore (the order of my motives is random), so soon I was walking down the…
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Dispatches from the Gilded Age, by Julia Reed
Dispatches from the Gilded Age by Julia Reed is a collection of 33 essays divided by subject into seven parts. It’s a good read, especially when you don’t have the energy for literature that requires concentration. The essay which made a lasting impression on me was the one on Helen Prejean, an eighty-two-year-old nun from Baton…
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