Essential for Crane scholars; less engaging for others.
The acclaimed novelist tackles the enigmatic life and work of American fiction writer, poet, and sometime journalist Stephen Crane (1871-1900).
Much has been written about the New Jersey–born Crane, who succumbed to tuberculosis at age 28. An inventive and prolific writer, Crane is best known for The Red Badge of Courage as well as enduring short works such as “The Blue Hotel” and “The Open Boat.” Though Crane has sparked the interest of numerous biographers and novelists—e.g., Edmund White’s imaginative 2007 novel Hotel de Dream—many readers will be curious about Auster’s take. Like Crane, Auster is from Newark, and his writing is also recognized for its inventiveness. He’s passionate about Crane and aims to elevate his relevancy. “Crane is now in the hands of the specialists, the lit majors and PhD candidates and tenured professors,” writes Auster, “while the invisible army of so-called general readers, that is, people who are not academics or writers themselves, the same people who still take pleasure in reading old standbys such as Melville and Whitman, are no longer reading Crane.” Throughout, Auster conveys a highly personal, idiosyncratic perspective on his subject and the biography form itself: “You cannot curl up on a sofa and settle into a book by Crane. You have to read him sitting bolt upright in your chair.” Yet, having spent nearly three years on this project, he may have been too eager to ensure his efforts were put to good use, as he exhaustively evaluates countless sources (primary and secondary) while probing and dissecting Crane’s writing. Auster’s in-depth exploration of major works like Red Badge is engrossing, as are most of his renderings of Crane’s life experiences, such as the shipwreck that inspired “The Open Boat.” However, when Auster applies his admittedly erudite methods to Crane’s lesser work and to tangential events, the narrative suffers from bloat. Running close to 800 pages, the book would have benefitted from streamlining.
Essential for Crane scholars; less engaging for others.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-23583-1
Page Count: 784
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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