I visited an old friend recently – John Gardner’s Nickel Mountain. I’ve been growing old waiting for the Gardner revival (the deceased literary novelist not likely to be confused with the living spy novelist John Gardner, although it bears mentioning), and was pleased to see October Light come b...
"What moves us is not just that characters, images, and events get some form of recapitulations or recall: We are moved by the increasing connectedness of things, ultimately a connectedness of values."John Gardner was perhaps as well known (if not more so) for his instruction on writing as for hi...
Brother versus sister. James is in his '70s in the 1970s (have I ever shared my theory about guys who were hot in the '70s? The theory is that they are not hot any longer. D'oh! I'm trying to be a sane goodreader now). Sally has run out of money in her eighties (she'd be rich again in the '80s if...
This book is definitely a reader's book, or maybe a writer's book? I'm never really sure what the difference is, but either way it's a tome that really pushes you to focus on what you're reading as there are quite a few heavy philosophical arguments and references within the novel, and it pushes ...
This is a retelling of the myth of Jason and Medea written by a modern writer for modern readers. Gardner makes a point in the beginning of pointing out that while the narrative structure of the story in poem format is similar to classic epics, the language is mostly modern. This version of the...