Phil Klay's Missionaries

My review of Phil Klay’s novel Missionaries has been published at The Bulwark, a political and cultural journal that emerged out of the ashes of The Weekly Standard. Thanks to them for the chance to write the review! Klay is a former Marine and fiction writer whom I discovered recently through the work of Nick Ripatrazone. (Earlier this year I reviewed Ripatrazone’s Longing for an Absent God in America Magazine, and shared further thoughts about the book on this blog.) Klay’s Redeployment, which won the National Book Award in 2014, is a collection of stories centered on the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The stories are shot through with the spiritual struggle of war, and Klay brings his Catholicism to bear on his fiction in a way that reminds me of Sushaku Endo or Graham Green—bracing, eloquently crafted, and respectful of the irreducible mysteries of our faith. Missionaries does much of the same, tracing these essential spiritual questions in the intertwined lives of several individuals involved in the American conflict in Colombia. Do read the book—it’s excellent.

Casey Schwartz's Attention: A Love Story

 

My review of Casey Schwartz’s thought-provoking memoir Attention: A Love Story is live at Church Life Journal. The review marks a bit of a departure for me in terms of subject—Schwartz’s memoir is neither primarily literary nor religious. Yet, as I explain in the review, I sensed in it fertile ground to explore something I’m interested in: the connection between our social preoccupation with attention in the age of the smartphone, and the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer. Readers of this blog will know of my fascination with Simone Weil, which Schwartz shares; though she isn’t religious herself, her engagement with the French thinker opens her to situating attention beyond the self, an impulse that I argue is fundamentally a religious one. Enjoy!

My Review of Christopher Beha's The Index of Self-Destructive Acts

The American Interest has published my review of Christopher Beha's most recent novel. As readers of this blog might remember, I wrote about Beha's first novel, What Happened to Sophie Wilder, a long while back. Beha occupies an interesting space in the current conversation surrounding Catholic fiction. He seems to be a practicing Catholic, and his cast of characters (which are somewhat continguous throughout his three novels), attended a Catholic prep school in Manhattan and occupy a variety of spots on the practicing/fallen-away spectrum. In my review, I attempt to make the argument that The Index of Self-Destructive Acts is a kind of existentialist-Catholic novel, and to do so I draw upon Beha's recent essay on Soren Kierkegaard in Harper's (which he edits).

Musical Recommendations and Upcoming Writing

I've contributed recently to The American Interest's nightly music recommendations, something the magazine has been doing during COVID-19. I've been playing piano, especially jazz, since I was quite young, and it's been great to have the chance to write about the music I love. Links to the write-ups are below.

Also watch out for some upcoming writing (book reviews and feature articles) at The American Interest and The Hedgehog Review. I will post all links here. Thanks for reading!

On the Jazz Trio:https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?u=f24302ce799fa4d884b86e032&id=03f101253f

On the Grateful Dead: https://mailchi.mp/the-american-interest/tais-musical-offering-harnoncourts-mozart-1285880

On the Left Hand in Jazz Piano: https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?u=f24302ce799fa4d884b86e032&id=4a0104ca3b

On New Orleans Jazz Pianists: https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?u=f24302ce799fa4d884b86e032&id=1973345242

The Jazz Trio

Though I love to read and think about literature, my first love is actually music (I'm a jazz pianist and a dabbler on the guitar). Recently I contributed to an quarantine series of music recommendations that the The American Interest has put out. See my contribution here https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?u=f24302ce799fa4d884b86e032&id=03f101253f.

Further Thoughts on My Review of Nick Ripatrazone's Longing for an Absent God

My review of Nick Ripatrazone’s Longing for an Absent God was published in America Magazine’s Spring 2020 Literary Review. I have a few more thoughts on the book that I’d like to post here.

Review of Ross Douthat's The Decadent Society at The American Interest

My review of Ross Douthat's latest book is live at The American Interest. https://www.the-american-interest.com/2020/03/18/the-limits-of-decadence/

I hope to post some more thoughts on the book soon. Stay healthy!

Some Upcoming Publications

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here, but it doesn't mean I haven't been writing! A few projects I've been working on:

-a movie review of a powerful film featuring two alumni at my current school (article starts on p. 36) https://issuu.com/portsmouthabbeyschool/docs/bulletin_winter_2020_issu

-a review of Nick Ripatrazone's Longing for an Absent God, forthcoming at America Magazine. Ripatrazone is a writer whom I admire and read frequently, and I was thrilled to be able to have the chance to read and share my thoughts on his new book. I will post the link to the review here when it runs.

-a review of Ross Douthat's The Decadent Society, forthcoming in The American Interest. Ross is a Catholic critic with whom I don't always see eye-to-eye, but whom I respect tremendously. I recently saw him speak in Providence and am currently putting my thoughts together on his thought-provoking new book.

My Review of Randy Boyagoda's Original Prin

This is just a note to say that my review of Randy Boyagoda's Original Prin is up at the American Interest. I'm swamped right now with the start of school, but I hope to have more to say here about the book soon.

Further Thoughts on My Review of Alan Jacobs' The Year of Our Lord 1943 at Marginalia

Marginalia, an arm of the LA Review of Books, has published my extended review of Alan Jacobs’s The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis. I wrote a “Briefly Noted” review earlier this year for First Things, but wanted to say much more about the book, and am grateful for Marginalia for giving me the space.

Review of Meghan O'Gieblyn's Interior States at The American Interest

The American Interest is running my review of Meghan O'Gieblyn's recent essay collection, Interior States. Her book is oustanding and refreshing for its ability to see through our current polarizations to reveal the irrationalities and hidden pieties that animate secular, as well as religious, world views. Highly recommended.

Review of Tara Westover's Educated: A Memoir at Commonweal

My review of Tara Westover's Educated is online and in the February 6, 2019 edition of Commonweal magazine. Please do read the review, but my short take is that most reviewers miss her goals in this book and assume that it is a rags-to-riches story of the intellectual life. It is that, but it is also the story of her soul, and on her journey, she stumbles upon some ancient, and Catholic, truths about the relationship between the individual and the community. Thanks to Commonweal for publishing it!

Review of The Year of Our Lord 1943 in First Things

The Winter 2019 issue of First Things contains my “Briefly Noted” review of Alan Jacobs’s The Year of Our Lord 1943. Thanks to the magazine for giving me the space to say something about an engrossing and important book. They call the section “Briefly Noted” for a reason, though, and I have much more to say than was possible in 200 words. I am currently working on a much longer piece on the book, and when it runs I will post the link here.

On Susan Wise Bauer's Rethinking School

Plough Quarterly has quickly become one of my favorite publications, and I’m honored that they have featured my review of Susan Wise Bauer’s Rethinking School in their Winter 2019 issue. In general, I think Wise Bauer raises important questions about the efficacy of public education, but her critique misses the mark, and I’d like to talk a little bit more about that in this post. Do read my review first, as I won't rehash it here.

Netflix does "Hold the Dark": William Giraldi's novel on the screen, directed by Jeremy Saulnier

I don't watch too many movies these days (kids and work and all) but I am hoping to catch the screen adaptation of William Giraldi's Hold the Dark, which was released on Netflix yesterday. The novel is outstanding, in my opinion, and betrays the author's deeply Catholic imagination, though he may not care to admit it.

What am I talking about? For those interested, I'll re-up two pieces I wrote when I first read the novel a few years back:

-My initial take for this blog

-My essay for Dappled Things, which won third place in their 2017 non-fiction contest

I have a few book reviews forthcoming--stay tuned! When they run I will post links here.

Review of How to Think

My review of Alan Jacobs' How to Think is up and running at the American Interest. It's my first time writing for them, and I've been impressed by the quality of their publication. I admire Jacobs as a writer and thinker, but I came away from How to Think with mixed feelings. Though the book contains exactly the right kind of advice for our distracted, tribal age, the form of Jacobs' argument--scattered, unnecessarily redundant, and circuitous--works against the very good habits he wants to inculcate in his readers.

The American Interest allows two free articles per month without a subscription, so if you're looking for another offering, check out Sean Keeley's thoughtful take on Ross Douthat's most recent book on Pope Francis.

An Update, and Some News

It's been over six months since my last post here, and I wanted to update any regular readers (hi Mom!) on the status of the blog and my writing. This past year our family has grown and my school obligations have increased, and I just haven't had the time to spend on the blog. And perhaps that's not a bad thing: these kinds of undertakings naturally ebb and flow, and I'm amazed to see that it's been 3 1/2 years, and 72 posts, since my first one on Walker Percy. It certainly hasn't felt that long.

The time I have had to write I've dedicated to publishing, and in the near future I'll have three reviews running in various publications, both print and online. They are: Tara Westover's Educated, Alan Jacobs' How to Think, and Susan Wise Bauer's Rethinking School. I'll post all links here when they run.

New blog posts are on hold for now and for the forseeable future, but I will continue to use this site as a hub of sorts for my writing. I'll use it to update readers when my writing is published, and I may also post "further thoughts" on articles and reviews I've written. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Catholic Paradise: Further Thoughts on David S. Brown's Paradise Lost

The January 5^th edition of Commonweal contains my review of David S. Brown’s biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Paradise Lost. My take is that though Brown’s book gives us a unique angle on Fitzgerald’s work, it doesn’t do enough to give us a complete portrait of the author. A large part of that, as I argue in the review, stems from Brown’s misunderstanding of the kind of paradise that animated Fitzgerald’s art, and I’d like to elaborate on that a little more in this post.

Teaching Western Civ Backwards

As someone who has both taken a Western Civilization sequence as an undergraduate and taught it as a teacher (my school has an interdisciplinary program that all Sophomores take) I have spent a good deal of time thinking about the scope of such a comprehensive undertaking. What is the best way to introduce students to the thought and culture that connects Greece and Rome all the way to the good ‘ol US of A? Which thinkers should we teach? How do we do proper justice to the tradition and confront the darker aspects of Western culture as well as acknowledge its achievements? There aren’t easy answers, of course, which makes the task even more interesting and keeps me coming back to the question.

St. Midas Goes to Print!

The September 8th issue of Commonweal includes my article "St. Midas's Prep: What Catholic Schools Can Learn from Fitzgerald." The article was published on the magazine's website last fall, and at that time I wrote two follow-up posts to the issues I raised:

"More on St. Midas, Part 1: Identifying the Problem"

"More on St. Midas, Part 2: Three Suggestions for a Return to the Humanities"

Also, see my review of William Deresiewicz's book Excellent Sheep, which I draw upon in the Commonweal article.

Thanks to Commonweal for getting it to print! My review of a recent biography of F. Scott should be forthcoming in their magazine as well.

Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich and the Socially Mediated Self (LMM #4)

(This is the fourth installment in my Literature for the Modern Mind series. To learn more about the series, see here.)

This past year I had the opportunity to teach Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich for the first time. In re-reading the novella, I was struck by how well Ivan’s character, who orients his life around the avoidance of discomfort and the pursuit of the approval of his peers, resembles the kind of self-understanding that our modern culture—especially social media—works to create in us.