As a playwright, Ann-Marie MacDonald is best known for the lighthearted Shakespeare parody Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), but her novels travel a considerably darker emotional terrain. In her Oprah-blessed debut Fall on Your Knees, she detailed the corrosive secrets and lies destroying a dysfunctional Nova Scotian family. Her followup, The Way the Crow Flies, … Read more
Like his previous novels, Snow Falling on Cedars and East of the Mountains, David Guterson’s latest, Our Lady of the Forest, follows another band of confused, rain-chilled characters battling tragic pasts and uncertain futures. In the sodden forests of North Fork, Washington, a homeless and asthmatic teenage pothead named Ann Holmes claims to be visited … Read more
Often considered Holland’s best hope to win the Nobel Prize, Harry Mulisch has built a reputation chiefly on two powerhouse novels-his World War II epic The Assault, and his sky-spanningly surreal The Discovery of Heaven, an ambitious work in the Umberto Eco vein. Mulisch’s aim in his latest, Siegfried, is pretty ambitious as well-an attempt … Read more
Already the only writer to win the Booker Prize twice, South African novelist Coetzee nabbed an even bigger honor in October in this year’s Nobel. He certainly didn’t net such accolades by avoiding controversial topics-consider 1999’s Disgrace, a complex story about animal rights, racism, and his homeland’s iniquitous history and uncertain future. He’s notoriously enigmatic, … Read more
Formerly an upscale pop-in-and-order-crepes-at-the-counter-type eatery, Savories shook things up last spring and transformed into a classy yet cozy dining nook with a distinct European flair. And then there’s the food. It starts with the fresh-baked bread, then eases into a heaping antipasto plate, slides full-force into an applewood-smoked bacon and smoked Brie salad, and then … Read more
Every fall for the last three, we Tom Stoppard fans have been blessed. Following up on the wonderful productions of The Invention of Love by the Guthrie in 2001 and Hapgood last year by the Jungle, Theatre in the Round will present us Arcadia this month. Arcadia deals with the typical Stoppard theme of taking … Read more
My great-aunt lived in three centuries. She remembered seeing her first automobile. “It was such a novelty. I never thought I’d actually get a ride in one,” she said. She lived through ten popes and twenty presidents. Born in St. Paul, in 1894, Sister Esther was the oldest of eight girls. Her parents moved to … Read more
Listen closely: That’s not the sound of cicadas or crickets. It’s local theater critics tittering about A Delicate Balance, the Jungle’s revival of the Edward Albee play. What they’re rubbing their legs about seems to be that they can’t handle the formal speechifying and the “two-dimensional” characters, and isn’t it just a cut-rate Who’s Afraid … Read more
DIY? As a graphic designer for New York’s Roycroft Colony, Dard Hunter invented the concept. Hunter’s participation in the Arts and Crafts movement (which embraced an ideal of human craftsmanship over the machine-made) yielded impressive results. Hunter dabbled in a variety of media, including stained glass and metal, but his true legacy lies in his … Read more
The last time our Golden Gophers won a Big Ten football championship, none of this year’s players had been born. It’s possible that some of their parents hadn’t either. In 1967, we had a shifty quarterback named Curt Wilson, a bruising fullback from South St. Paul named Jim Carter, and an All-American defensive end in … Read more