Found, in Translation

Jobs, Journalism, Justice

Contributing Writer

A literary jazz riff, four decades in the making

By Elliott Bronstein | June 16, 2010

BOOK REVIEW: Three Days Before the Shooting...

By Ralph Ellison, edited by John F. Callahan and Adam Bradley, Modern Library, 2010, Hardcover, 1101 pages, $50 ...

A “Valley” that leads nowhere

By Elliott Bronstein | January 7, 2010

BOOK REVIEW: In the Valley of the Kings: Stories By Terrence Holt, W. W. Norton, 2009, Hardcover, By Terrence Holt, W. W. Norton, 2009, Hardcover, 221 pages, $23.95

"Holt is my favorite writer. There is no one in the wide sea of English who writes like him," says Junot Diaz on the back cover of "In the Valley of the Kings," and that should be good enough for me because that's exactly what I think about Junot Diaz, who won the Pulitzer Prize for writing one hell of a book. ...

Brothers, keepers

By Elliott Bronstein | October 29, 2009

Imagine you were born well-placed and wealthy, with servants and doting (if absent) parents. Imagine yourselves clever, highly educated and properly groomed to take your places as the sons and heirs of a prominent New York family.

Imagine then a twist of fate -- several, in fact. You lose your eyesight; your brother grows more eccentric; your parents die. Ah, but the house. You still have that Manhattan mansion at 2078 Fifth Ave. (the corner of 128th St.). ...

Entering a portal into China and its wasted lives

By Elliott Bronstein | March 20, 2009

In 1979, in the anonymous provincial city of Muddy River, China, authorities are preparing to execute Gu Shan, a young counter-revolutionary. As a fanatical Red Guard follower of Mao Zedong, she once kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach. More recently she has renounced her past and denounced the Party. And so today, Gu Shan is scheduled to die before thousands of her neighbors and townspeople, who are prepared to jeer on command. ...

Brilliance, but with a cost

By Elliott Bronstein | March 16, 2009

When, exactly, were "The Good Old Days?" Surely not the 1680s, when eastern and southern First Nations were losing a war of attrition against European marauders and refugees, when the dreams of some were predicated on the nightmares of others, when the clay of North American civilization was still muddy and misshapen.

In her latest novel, A Mercy, Toni Morrison twists back to that obscure colonial era to strip away more of our family secrets. Morrison shows how precarious life has always been here; how easily the linchpin can dissolve and the balance trip. ...

Vanilla, iced

By Elliott Bronstein | March 12, 2009

Uh oh, we've got a problem. Halfway through Vanilla Bright Like Eminem, and here I go thinking of starting a new book. Here come the tired old fibs: "Just want to take a break; I'll get right back to it tomorrow night." ...

Earthly beauty

By Elliott Bronstein | March 11, 2009

Straight billiards is played with just three balls on a pocket-less pool table. It's different than pool games like eight-ball or snooker, with their tables full of balls of different colors and values. In straight billiards players score points based on the myriad ways and styles that just those three balls bump into each other. ...

Hell on Earth?

By Elliott Bronstein | March 9, 2009

The Empire of Hell is very diverse. It embraces all races, socio-economic classes, even religions -- the rainbow residents of Hell pray to all the gods in heaven, and tragically, all their prayers are answered. ...

Poetry, firmly in its Golden Age

By Elliott Bronstein | March 9, 2009

We are well into a Golden Age of contemporary poetry, and perhaps no one represents this creative power in America more than the poet James Tate. His new collection of poems, The Ghost Soldiers, is the perfect way to shore up your daily courage -- and deepen your paranoia -- about our governments, our communities, our lives. ...