I still get chills up and down my spine when the strings reach their crescendo about three-quarters of the way through " I've Seen that Movie Too." And "Harmony" is the greatest EJ single that never was.

I've been a fan of Boyle's since Budding Prospects in 1984. No one writing today is as skillful as he in constructing a self-contained human ecosystem—rich yuppies, old hippies, multi-racial newcomers, white trash all live, work and antagonize each other in Boyle's Dystopia. That said, it's getting harder and harder…

I've been a fan of Boyle's since Budding Prospects in 1984. No one writing today is as skillful as he in constructing a self-contained human ecosystem—rich yuppies, old hippies, multi-racial newcomers, white trash all live, work and antagonize each other in Boyle's Dystopia. That said, it's getting harder and harder…

It may be Roth's attempt to answer Updike's Bech books.

It may be Roth's attempt to answer Updike's Bech books.

The Human Stain suffers from major character and plot flaws (what? another screwed up Vietnam Vet?), but it's of a piece with Roth's late career surge. Read it.

The Human Stain suffers from major character and plot flaws (what? another screwed up Vietnam Vet?), but it's of a piece with Roth's late career surge. Read it.

Hyman Roth.

Hyman Roth.

Good literature should transcend the author's ethnic background. You don't have to be black to revere Ellison's The Invisible Man, or Jewish to read Roth. I can't get through The Corrections, or Infinite Jest. Maybe I just don't get them?

Good literature should transcend the author's ethnic background. You don't have to be black to revere Ellison's The Invisible Man, or Jewish to read Roth. I can't get through The Corrections, or Infinite Jest. Maybe I just don't get them?

American Pastoral  is one of the best novels I've ever read. Do read it. And also the follow-up, I Married a Communist. It's not nearly as good, but it's  entertaining.

American Pastoral  is one of the best novels I've ever read. Do read it. And also the follow-up, I Married a Communist. It's not nearly as good, but it's  entertaining.

You're right, but there was a time when businessmen commuting to and from work by train would read magazines like The New Yorker or The Atlantic, which carried stories by the likes of JD Salinger, John Updike and John Cheever. It's not hard to imagine more than a few of them-liking what they read-seeking out the…

You're right, but there was a time when businessmen commuting to and from work by train would read magazines like The New Yorker or The Atlantic, which carried stories by the likes of JD Salinger, John Updike and John Cheever. It's not hard to imagine more than a few of them-liking what they read-seeking out the…