Jun 16 2003

An Interview With Danielle Crittenden

In my never ending quest for interesting content for you dear reader, I decided to take a page out of John Hawkins? book and do some interviews. At the time I happened to be reading a very interesting book, Amanda Bright@home by Danielle Crittenden, and thought it would be interesting to interview the author. Thanks to the power of email and the graciousness of the author, I was able to arrange a Q & A.

In case you are unaware of who she is, let me give you some background on this impressive author. Besides writing Amanda Bright@Home, the first novel to be serialized by Opinion Journal, she is also the author of What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes The Modern Woman. A former columnist for The New York Post, she is also the founding editor of The Women’s Quarterly, published by the Washington- based Independent Women’s Forum. Miss Crittenden is married to David Frum, a former speechwriter for President Bush. They have two children and live in Washington.

I will post a review of this interesting book on Tuesday but to wet your appetites please find below a series of questions I posed to the author via email. The questions are in bold and her answers follow.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Interviews •

Jun 11 2003

Modern Library’s 100 Greatest English Language Novels of the 20th Century

I get a great many hits looking for the 100 greatest novels. Lately I have been feeling guilty that when you click through you find no real content just an out of date link. So I have decided to remedy that by listing the novels out and letting you know which I have read. The ones in Bold I have read and the ones in Italic I own (those in both I own and have read). I hope this helps those of you clicking through . . .

1. ULYSSES by James Joyce
2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
7. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

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By Kevin Holtsberry • News • 1

Jun 10 2003

Communism by Richard Pipes

communism.jpg After reading One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich I thought this would be a good time to read another slim volume in a similar vein: Richard Pipes’ Modern Library Chronicles’ Communism: A History. I have Brian Crozier’s epic The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire and I want to read Anne Applebaum’s recently released Gulag: A History but Pipes was on the shelf and comes in at less than 200 pages (Crosier is almost 850). Plus the Modern Library series is so cool and handy; short works by respected authors on important subjects all packaged in classy hardback volumes.

One thing to keep in mind, however, in a volume like this is that it is an overview not a complete analysis. Obviously a subject like communism cannot be covered in depth in a short work like this but Pipes packs a lot of wisdom into his pages. Starting from ancient Greek thoughts on a classless and egalitarian society and ending with the demise of the Soviet Union and the strange anachronisms like Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam Pipes traces the destructive and cruel history of the utopian scheme of communism. For the purposes of his discussion Pipes focuses on the core Marxist-Leninist version of communism and in particular the Soviet Union. This makes sense given the impact and centrality of the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union in the History of 20th Century communism. Within this history, however, Pipes discusses both the Western and Third World reaction to and involvement in communism’s history. Pipes explores communism as a global phenomenon.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews •

Jun 3 2003

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

oneday.jpg In my continuing effort to educate myself by reading classic literature, I recently read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It was a quick and fascinating read but I am almost at a loss of how to capture it or review it. Being a good blogger, however, I will soldier on.

Perhaps a quick summary would be beneficial and possible. The book, as obvious from the title, relates the day of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov a prisoner in a Soviet slave labor camp. This Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner, or “zek”, in a Soviet slave labor camp. Shukhov has been sentenced to ten years simply because he was captured by the Germans in WW I. He escaped and rejoined the Red Army but was immediately suspected of being a spy. His denial only led to brutal beatings to the point where he signed a “confession” to save his life. In the story Shukhov has nearly served his entire sentence. The story follows him through his day – from reveille at five AM until he falls asleep that night.

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By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 2

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