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Category Archive for 'Literary'

Dappled Things — Easter Edition!

The Easter edition of Dappled Things (an online literary journal for young Catholics) features an essay written by yours truly. My piece is a reflection on the whole MySpace phenomenon from a Christian perspective. Keep in mind the Flannery quote: “I don’t deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always […]

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by David Lodge
reviewed by John Murphy
 

“It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.” – G.K. Chesterton

Christianity passes the test, as the wry novels of David Lodge attest. (The riots and righteous fury inspired by a Danish caricature of the prophet Muhammad a few years ago….Well, that’s another story).
The […]

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The American by Henry James

reviewed by John Murphy
“You are not afraid it may be rather a mistake for an American man of business to marry a French countess?”
The American man of business is certainly not afraid it’s a mistake; it seems only too natural. Christopher Newman, a captain of American industry in his mid-thirties, travels to Europe to become […]

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Every Eye by Isobel English

reviewed by Debra Murphy
"The late Isobel English was an exceptionally talented young novelist of the mid-1950s. Every Eye is one of her most successful and sensitively written books, a romantic yet unsentimental story of a young woman’s intricate relationships of family and love, intensely evocative of the period, remarkable in its observations of place […]

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reviewed by John Murphy
Pagan Goddess…or Vague and Godless?
I first encountered Kate Chopin’s New Orleans-set novella, The Awakening, in a course on twentieth-century literature. I recall a sense of gratitude to the author for her book’s merciful brevity. The Awakening was on the curriculum because of the proto-feminist implications of the storyline. Quick summary (warning: spoilers […]

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