I liked the movie better, actually; Hinton’s narrators have a disingenuous way of talking about themselves that gets a bit irritating after a while, and it works better as film melodrama.   Also, I used …

A sweet baseball reminiscence that could stand a tighter, cleaner edit — and unless you’re a Red Sox fan and/or you know a good deal about the game pre-1950, I don’t know that it’s the …

John Gregory Dunne’s dry prose is such a good fit with the movie industry; he’s really able to take the wind out of it, but without sounding bitter or mean.   Good time capsule, good …

It’s meticulously researched, and some of the descriptions made me nauseated enough that I had to put the book down to read something else for a little while — but there’s still something irritating about …

The book is good — Styron’s prose is outstanding — but it’s too long; I like the movie better, because Styron does tend to get into sidebars that don’t feel necessary to the story, and …

The writing is both very precise and wildly overwrought, particularly the dialogue, which…my God, even a Lassie episode is closer to how kids really  talk, and the father’s lengthy pontificating in the library was just …

Very sharp and funny, particularly the extremely dry and long overdue takedown of Susan Sontag. (9/8/03)

A lovely…what’s the term I want here?   “Memoir of the transgender experience,” I guess.   In any case, funny and touching in just the right balance, and beautifully written.   (9/8/03)

The prose is a little bit clumsy, but if you like media studies, it’s a fab read in an election year.   Grab a copy if you can.   My newest favorite political joke: “I’d …

The editor made a big thing out of not including “The Necklace,” which I think is a mistake; it’s probably his strongest story.   These are good, but it took me a while to get …