Archive: Dennis Drabelle
Five Literary Fiascos by Great American Writers
From time to time a successful author decides he should take a chance, go for broke, write a revolutionary book. Whereupon said writer promptly lays an egg. Here are five literary fiascos, all by Americans: Cases of good writers gone shockingly bad. 1. Pierre, or The Ambiguities, by Herman Melville...
By Christian Pelusi | June 19, 2008; 06:24 AM ET | Comments (10)
Five Books That Defy Categorization
We're becoming more and more wedded to genres: labeling books as mystery, literary fiction, Western chick-lit, travel, American history and so on, while expecting them to live up to expectations and abide by boundaries. But some of my favorite books defy easy pigeonholing -- and may be the better for...
By Christian Pelusi | May 1, 2008; 06:12 AM ET | Comments (8)
Great -- and Way Too Often Overlooked -- Novels by Famous Authors
Here are five stepchildren -- terrific novels overshadowed by their creators' more famous or better-selling works: 1. No Name (1862), by Wilkie Collins. Collins's The Woman in White and The Moonstone are giants of sensationalist fiction, but No Name, a dizzying spiral of impersonation and revenge, is just as good....
By Christian Pelusi | February 28, 2008; 10:49 AM ET | Comments (12)
Books That Illuminate the Silver Screen
The feature film is just about a century old, and all those years of history have produced a landslide of books about the medium. These five books, ranging from the glamorous silent era to the cusp of the 1960s renaissance, help bring it all in focus. 1. Silent Stars, (1999),...
By Christian Pelusi | January 3, 2008; 07:25 AM ET | Comments (5)
Travel Books That Will Take You Far
As the days get shorter and colder, vicarious adventure starts looking better than the real thing. Here, chosen in part to reflect the range of the planet's ecosystems, are half-a-dozen great books for the armchair explorer: 1. Arabian Sands (1959), by Wilfred Thesiger. From 1945-50, Thesiger spent as much time...
By Christian Pelusi | November 15, 2007; 07:02 AM ET | Comments (11)
