Death Comes for the Archbishop (Vintage Classics)95 reviews Willa Cather Vintage, 1990 The sacred landscape + One of the best all time books + Here's the Pages I Dog-Eared + Stunning             Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie (Penguin Classics)1 review Kate Chopin Penguin Classics, 1999 Kate Chopin Short Stories I loved this book! It is a collection of short stories, originally published singly in magazines. They provide a snapshot of life in Louisiana in the late 19th century, and truly fulfill this reader's desire to be transported to a different time and place. In each story, often only a few pages ...             Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices (Voices of the South Series)1 review Robert Penn Warren Louisiana State University Press, 1996 Marvelous blend of history and artistry In Brother to Dragons, Robert Penn Warren, former poet laureate and twice winner of the Pulitzer, combined the historical elements of the New Madrid earthquake and the murder of a slave by two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews with his love of poetry. This book has various "voices" relating the brutal ...             The Vixen2 reviews W.S. Merwin Knopf, 1997 One of Merwin's Best--and Most Original + A Gem These moving poems stay with you. With their graceful flatness, many feel like strange, shimmering fragments of narrative; there is an interplay of mystery and revelation that opens onto a new--or forgotten--realm of poetic experience.             Pylon: The Corrected Text10 reviews William Faulkner Vintage, 1987 Unconditional + The hand to mouth hero pilot is jipped by the rich airport owner... not news at 11 I have no excuses to give for this book. Don't read it if you don't want to. Don't read it if you want literature. Don't read it if you want prurient prose (despite the other reviewers' references to sex, there is little to find in it). Don't read it if you want Faulkner. Don't read it if you want ...             The Blithedale Romance (Penguin Classics)17 reviews Nathaniel Hawthorne Penguin Classics, 1983 Hawthorne's Sleeper + Cloverdale's Tale + Much More Than Your Typical Romance + Light and shadow + The Blithedale Romance             The Dean's December (Penguin Classics)10 reviews Saul Bellow Penguin Classics, 1998 White Heat + the deepest of the comparisons of the US and the Communist Eastern Europe- and more. + Man against time + Cold December + Surprisingly, One Of His Better Novels, But More Somber Than Most             Across The River And Into The Trees49 reviews Ernest Hemingway Scribner, 1996 A STUNNING NARRATION OF THIS CLASSIC TALE + Introspective tale of a dying man's last days - underated EH in my opinion Surely one of Ernest Hemingway's most memorable novels, Across the River and Into the Trees, is the touching story of love that comes too late. First released in 1950 the novel covers three days in the life of Cantwell, a retired Army officer. He is now 50-years-old and has returned to the ...             Flags in the Dust: The complete text of Faulkner's third novel, which appeared in a cut version as Sartoris10 reviews William Faulkner Vintage, 1974 The only Faulkner I truly enjoyed + Thoughts upon completing a quarter of "Sartoris" + Faulkner's "Flags" Tastes Better Than It Looks + Good Writing             Flappers and Philosophers8 reviews F. Scott Fitzgerald Pocket, 2002 A good sampling of Fitzgerald + Entertaining, Popular Pieces That Paid The Bills. + Form and Finesse + Form and Finesse + Excellent, engrossing short stories             Shane101 reviews Jack Schaefer Laurel Leaf, 1983 I took me 30 years to finish this book + Deserved Classic + Less of a Western more of a Coming-of-age story + If you have a soul you'll love it! + True American Literature             Shadow and Act2 reviews Ralph Ellison Vintage, 1995 memoirs from a unique brotha + First Class Act: Shadow of a Giant Mistaken for Invisible not merely a statement on being a black man in america, but on being a man period. ellison is not a militant negro nor is he a white man's negro. he is a free spirit who keeps his mind open to art , music, and life. i loved all the essays. he had cosmopolitan background growing up in oklahoma ...             Buchanan Dying : A Play3 reviews John Updike Stackpole Books, 2000 Requiem for the Old Public Fuctionary + Ever Candid, Ever Wizened For a major American writer to focus on a major American political figure is not unique. Gore Vidal offered us some interesting looks at Burr, Lincoln, Wilson, Harding and FDR in his various works of historical fiction. Caleb Carr presents a fun Teddy Roosevelt in "The Alienist". In "Buchanan ...             Death in the Afternoon36 reviews Ernest Hemingway Scribner, 1996 Death as an art form + BULLFIGHTING 101 + Happiness Is A Dead Bull + Excellent journalism + Yes = the Fine Art of Bullfighting             Democracy: An American Novel (Meridian)9 reviews Henry Adams Plume, 1983 A Must Read for Anyone Who is Rabid for Politics and American History! + "I must know whether America is right or wrong." + Political satire that is still relevant today + an amusing take on politics             American skin1 review Peter Viertel Houghton Mifflin, 1984 A Skillful and Dark Entertainment Viertel's skill exhibited here recalls Orson Welles' old cliche: "I will sell no wine before its time." In his seventies after a lifetime in the film industry and some well made novels, he delivers a smooth, perfectly lucid and nicely colored text. It is certainly a contender to stand as one of ...             September, September3 reviews Shelby Foote Vintage, 1991 an outstanding read..a must read!!! + Compelling story is told with emphasis on style and voice. + The Great Historian is also an Outstanding Novelist this southernistic view of greed and crime is a truly well written thriller!!foote has once again showed his talent as a novelist and and a true artist of the english language!             Battle Pieces: The Civil War Poems of Herman Melville (American Poetry)1 review Herman Melville Castle Books, 2000 Why Melville is not a great poet ( My feeling of this) I think that one of the first questions which must be asked about the poetry of Melville, is why it is on the level of Melville's greatest prose, which is a most poetic prose at times. Why is it that Melville's real power is in those vast cathedral-tunes of sentences which sing together though they ...             World Enough and Time (Voices of the South)3 reviews Robert Penn Warren Louisiana State University Press, 1999 Penn Warren's Other Masterpiece + Disillusionment in early Kentucky + Too Dark for My Taste This novel is one of the big sleepers in 20th century American fiction, and adds a twin peak to Penn Warren's other novelistic masterpiece, All the King's Men. On the surface, the story traces the rise, career, love, and misadventures of Jeremiah Beaumont in the early days of Kentucky and of ...             The Witches of Eastwick24 reviews John Updike Ballantine Books, 1996 Scathing Social Satire + I loved it... but not in the way I thought + Stellar in places, but loses its initial luster partway through Likely many will be giving this book a new look now that Updike has published a sequel. Since Updike became a realist at mid-career with his Rabbit novels, not many understood this book. But it is a scathing social satire on post-Protestant America, in the vein of his earlier Couples and Month of ...