Articles Written by:    FRANCESCA MARI     

« Previous  |  Next »

Anthology review: 'The Pushcart Prize XXXIII'

In fiction as in life, the fundamental difference between the mainstream and the marginalized - between, say, "The Best American Short Stories" and "The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses" series - is that the indies have more sex. And not just ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, San Francisco Chronicle,  25 Dec 2008
Related Topics: Victoria's Secret,  Derek Walcott,  John Barth

Annals of Malpractice

Of all the service providers ever evaluated by Consumer Reports, doctors receive among the highest ratings. People, the magazine concluded, actually like going to the doctor: they like the bestowal of paper robes and the perfunctory poking! In a survey ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, The New York Times,  28 Nov 2008
Related Topics: Consumer Reports,  The New Republic

Kirsten Menger-Anderson's 'Doctor Olaf Van Schuler's Brain'

Of all the service providers ever evaluated by Consumer Reports, doctors receive among the highest ratings. People, the magazine concluded, actually like going to the doctor: they like the bestowal of paper robes and the perfunctory poking! In a survey ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, International Herald Tribune,  27 Nov 2008
Related Topics: Consumer Reports

Fiction review: 'The China Lover'

Which first sentence is most gripping? A) "There was a time, hard to imagine now, when the Japanese fell in love with China." B) "We all knew the rules back then, in the summer of 1946: NFWIP, No Fraternization with Indigenous Personnel." C) "The one ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, San Francisco Chronicle,  30 Sep 2008
Related Topics: Ian Buruma,  Truman Capote

What We Write About When We Write About Seduction

The Game, that infamous black-imitation-leather-bound book about the seduction community, is a novel of sorts. There is a narrative. But really the writer, Neil Strauss, produced a guidebook with a glossary. I remember--the book appeared in 2005--how ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, The New Republic,  23 Sep 2008
Related Topics: Neil Strauss,  Harvard University,  Raymond Carver

Hanif's 'Exploding Mangoes' - comic conspiracies

At some point growing up I had an epiphany: The lies I told were always better, safer, if I added an odd detail or two. If I was going to lie about spending the night at Katie's, I might as well add that their calico climbed up into the microwave in ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, San Francisco Chronicle,  1 Jun 2008
Related Topics: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,  Benazir Bhutto,  Ronald Reagan,  Osama bin Laden

The Flight To Cosmic Realism: Novels In A Post-Print World

Words have become too self-conscious, too anxious, to sit still on the page. In a world blaring with YouTube videos and buzzing with blog posts, there is, especially in fiction, an apparent need to justify the extended use of text. Why write a story ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, The New Republic,  12 May 2008
Related Topics: Marilynne Robinson,  YouTube,  John Banville,  Susan Minot

Lewis Lapham Just Can't Help Himself

In Philip Roth's latest book, Exit Ghost, Amy Bellette has to be hauled out of the New York Public Library kicking and screaming. Her lover, the fictional writer E.I. Lonoff, isn't represented among a display of America's best authors, and Bellette is ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, The New Republic,  18 Feb 2008
Related Topics: Philip Roth,  Richard Wright,  Toni Morrison,  Ralph Ellison,  Fidel Castro

The 'Lapham's' Index

In many ways this issue is central to Lewis Lapham, the legendary former editor of Harper's. In 2006, Lapham carped to a newspaper interviewer that in American universities, if a text doesn't reach "a politically correct standard on one or more of [the ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, The New Republic,  15 Feb 2008
Related Topics: Central Intelligence Agency,  Fidel Castro,  Henry V of England,  White House,  Tim Collins

Hillary Endorses

You must be logged-in to comment. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a digital or print and digital subscription to The New Republic! Ugh, I'm going to smack you.  In some kind of virtual sense.   Am I taking crazy pills, or is that is the most ...

From FRANCESCA MARI, The New Republic,  12 Feb 2008
Related Topics: Barack Obama

« Previous  |  Next »

Who is This?

Help us add to our database, by linking this writer their entry in Wikipedia or Source Watch, or by suggesting that we remove it from our index.

Suggest an Entry

Enter a url from sourcewatch.org or wikipedia.org:


recommend removal

close