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The entry below is being cross posted from Majorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Long Island by Colm Toibin is a May, 2024 sequel to his notable 2009 novel Brooklyn and follows its principal characters, Eilis Lacey, an Irish immigrant to Brooklyn in the 1950’s, and her husband Tony Fiorella, a plumber from a robust…
Read More »Satori in Paris by Jack Kerouac. Grove Atlantic (2023), 120 pages, $16 (softcover) Reviewed by David Daniel Seventy years after it started, the Beat Movement continues to hold considerable cultural fascination. Nurtured by its origin-story of Columbia University friendships followed by the famed Six Gallery Reading and the San Francisco…
Read More »Review of The Transcendentalists and Their World Book by Robert A. Gross Review by Richard Howe Most people see history as permanent and fixed in time. Something happened in the past and those in the present tell the story about what happened. Only that’s not what history is or how…
Read More »Lockdown Letters & Other Poems By Paul Marion Review by Richard Howe Sixteen months ago life in Lowell proceeded at its typical late winter pace. It was cold and there was a bit of snow but all indications were that 2020 would be a busy year in the local historical…
Read More »A Book Review by Jack McDonough I spent my entire working life writing and editing copy but I’ve never written fiction. For certain, I’ve never written a novel. But I appreciate good writing and would like to help budding novelists, and even those already published, by sharing examples of remarkable…
Read More »This is No Time To Quit Drinking A novel by Stephen O’Connor A review by Jerry Bisantz. Along with Ann Garvin, Jerry is Artistic Director of Lowell’s Image Theater. A published playwright, he is the author of “Boys at Play”, “Romance 101” and “Memories For Sale” I’ll never forget my…
Read More »I saw Spotlight yesterday at the Lowell Cinema. It’s a very powerful film. The story is well-known but the movie still generated an incredible amount of suspense. While the core of the story is the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the movie is mostly about how it was covered up for…
Read More »I was up late last night, not to watch the Patriots but to finish reading Massacre on the Merrimack, Jay Atkinson’s excellent new book about Hannah Duston and her encounter with Abenaki warriors along the bank of the Merrimack River in March 1697. The 39 year old Duston had just…
Read More »My association with the town of Tewksbury is long, and I like to think deep. Many, many years ago I remember attending an event in which several dignitaries from the town of Tewkesbury, England were the featured guest. Honestly, I was there for political reasons, more than historical. At that…
Read More »After thirty-one years as a successful late night talk show host, last night David Letterman announced his retirement. The 67 year old entertainer began his career as a weatherman in Indianapolis before moving into comedy writing. In his early appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, I found Letterman’s…
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