Voyage Around My Room. Xavier de Maistre. Translated by Stephen Sartarelli. New Directions, 2016. 244 pp. $14.95 (paper). In 1790 Xavier de Maistre was put under house arrest for the offense of dueling. His sentence was forty-two days. As I enter my third month of social distancing (at the time of this writing), I suspect …
Bel Canto. Ann Patchett. Harper, 2001. 336 pp. $25.99 (cloth). In these unsettling/upsetting/unprecedented times, as so many corporate emails begin these days, I find myself annoyed with articles promising me THE BEST BOOKS TO READ IN QUARANTINE. What irritates me about these lists is the implication that a particular kind of book is most satisfying …
Babel-17. Samuel R. Delany. First edition Ace Books, 1966. Vintage, 2001 (withEmpire Star). 336 pp. $15.95 (paper). For a science-fiction novel about space travel and intergalactic conflict, Samuel Delany’s 1966 book Babel-17 begins with an unlikely scenario: poet Rydra Wong is asked by the government to help save the universe. Like ours, Wong’s Earth is …