“The streets met at odd angles, and urine reeked in the alleys. No one living in here could forget his basic humanity.” (When in Florence, p. 32.) This not a new book; it was published in 1986, but I only recently stumbled across it. And newness isn’t everything. In fact, sometimes it’s best to let […]
Book Review
Posted inArts + Scene
Lady-Fame
Lady-Fame or The Fluke technically qualifies as a memoir, though it feels like an insult to call it one, given the way that term’s been degraded in recent years. The events depicted herein are taken, we are led to believe, from Peter Santino’s real life, though one passage, about a third of the way through, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
My Humboldt Diary
When President Obama made his announcement of loan guarantees to the nuclear industry in 2010, Bob Rowen decided it was time to pick up his pen. My Humboldt Diary: A True Story of Betrayal of the Public Trust, is Rowen’s account of his life as a nuclear control technician working for Pacific Gas & Electric at the […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Spent
The very existence of this book stands as a testament to one of the oldest clichés there is: Sex sells. If it didn’t, Spent would never have been published, and I wouldn’t be reviewing it; let’s admit that right up front. This is not meant as a slam on Antonia Crane, who tells her story […]