Magnificent Octopus

Hackworth had enjoyed San Francisco and was hardly immune to its charm, but Atlantis/Shanghai had imbued him with the sense that all the old...

"You want to ask me about class and status? Is that it?" "Yes, ma'am." "You Opinioners are always asking ab...

I'd never heard of Robert Sheckley until New York Review Books released a collection of his stories. It's got a gorgeous cover, and ...

Ian McEwan is hit or miss with me. I've loved a couple of his books and hated a couple others, despite their reputations or promising de...

"I'll know when you're close," the voice said. "You were warm just then." "Just then?" All he had do...

So I did what I could, but the mimeographed pages always came back from the front office with unequivocal notes: too melodramatic, too absur...

Mostly he was indifferent to the squalor of his flat, the meaty black flies and the leisurely patrols. When he was out he dreaded returning ...

I found Life Is Short and Desire Endless , by Patrick Lapeyre, to be a quirky and infuriating little novel. And yes, there's something d...

Dear Publishers, If a novel has a glossary, please give some early indication that there exists a glossary. Put it in the front of the boo...

In Rachel Hartman's young adult novel Seraphina , dragons feel about us the way we feel about cockroaches... "All right. Can you ...

His conjugal affection has never actually been as vehement as he claims, and their relationship, despite intermittent bonds of complicity an...

The man that cannot visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot. — André Breton I visualize everything galloping on tomatoes. I lov...

La Tomate Trop timide, la tomate devient écarlate quand on lui dit qu'elle est belle. Un rien l'épate, elle se dresse sur ses ...

It's tomato season! That is, I'm daily plucking cherry tomatoes by the handful from my hanging basket plant. I love tomatoes! Here...

Je ne sais pas...

(I love that word — penumbra .) By some coincidence I happened to bookmark a couple items to check on later and on that later inspection t...

It's Canada Day! And I'm relaxing by assembling Ikea furniture!

"Do you feel all right, in that sense, because you don't look great." "I've been better, no question about that. Bu...

The more it goes, the more I'm liking this novel, A Naked Singularity , by Sergio De La Pava. I mean, I liked it from page 1, but it jus...

The Ideas of Northrop Frye airs on CBC this week. The progam is available online: Part 1 Part 2 We unknowingly, but happily, tuned int...