examiner articles | David F. Cooper

Browsing All Posts filed under »examiner articles«

Israeli books: A.B. Yehoshua’s The Extra features a child-free heroine

June 8, 2016

“On the surface the new novel is about feminism and the right of women to choose not to bear children. But an underlying theme is whether liberal nationalism is an oxymoron, whether the rights of the individual (the essence of liberalism) can be reconciled with the needs of the nation.” — from my New York […]

Jewish books: in Max’s Diamonds family secrets stalk its ambitious protagonist

May 30, 2016

“Max’s Diamonds, Jay Greenfield’s debut novel published last week by New York publisher Chickadee Prince Books, is a guilty pleasure, a book I enjoyed and could barely put down for its suspenseful serpentine plot despite its pedestrian and occasionally heavy-handed prose.” — From my examiner article (starting in the next paragraph). Also see my New […]

Books: Charles Bock and Jennifer S. Brown portray Manhattan in earlier eras

May 10, 2016

My reviews of the two novels appear in New York Journal of Books. Read those reviews first, and then go to the next paragraph to read my additional remarks that appeared in an article in a different and now defunct publication comparing the two novels that were published the same week. At first glance two historical […]

Jewish books: Fishman and Tsabari explore home and displacement in new fiction

March 25, 2016

In my examiner article (next paragraph) I write: “Two fiction books published this month explore what home means for two distinct waves of recent immigrants. Boris Fishman continues to relate the experiences of Russian speaking Jews who immigrated to America in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s in his second novel Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo, […]

Israeli books: Youval Shimoni’s experimental post-modern fiction classic A Room

March 24, 2016

In my New York Journal of Books review of Youval Shimoni‘s A Room I write: “A Room is strongly recommended to readers of post-modern and experimental fiction who enjoy stream of consciousness narratives and who are willing to delve deeper than a thin plot’s surface level.” Read that review first. Additional excerpts from the novel and […]

Jewish books: Gyorgy Spiro’s Captivity portrays First Century Roman Jewry

December 31, 2015

My review of Captivity by György Spiró appears in New York Journal of Books. Read that review first. Additional remarks that appeared in a different and now defunct publication begin with the next paragraph. Jewish books: Gyorgy Spiro’s Captivity portrays First Century Roman Jewry Was there ever an era like the current one when Jews […]

91 year old William Gass’ prose is still gorgeous in Eyes: Novellas and Stories

November 5, 2015

My review of William Gass’ new book of short fiction appears in New York Journal of Books. Read that review first. Additional remarks (including a longer excerpt from the book and additional biographical info about Gass) that appeared in a different and now defunct publication begin with the next paragraph. 91 year old William Gass’ prose is […]

Israeli books: Ronit Matalon’s autobiographic novel The Sound of Our Steps

August 4, 2015

“A fictional and more literary tale of an Egyptian Jewish family’s diminished circumstances after immigrating to Israel is The Sound of Our Steps by Ronit Matalon, a novel published today in Dalya Bilu’s English translation by Metropolitan Books. In my New York Journal of Books review I praise it as a ‘beautifully written and skillfully translated book that rewards rereading.’” — from […]

Jewish books: Joshua Cohen’s Book of Numbers is a high tech epic

July 16, 2015

What happens when a down on his luck luddite novelist is hired to ghostwrite a memoir by a math whiz tech mogul who shares his (and the author of this novel’s) name? …At close to 600 pages of dense prose Book of Numbers is not light reading. I close my NYJB review by recommending it […]

Milan Kundera’s new novella The Festival of Insignificance

July 12, 2015

“… likewise 86 year old Czech-French novelist Milan Kundera’s new work of fiction, The Festival of Insignificance, which was published last week by New York based publisher Harper in Linda Asher’s fine English translation from the Kundera’s French, is a 128 pp. novella that revisits its author’s recurring themes but in a shorter format.” — […]