Darwin’s Pros and Cons of Marriage

Oh Charles Darwin, life presents such difficult choices.
Check out Darwin’s own pros and cons of marriage. If you click the button that says “image view” you can see the list in Darwin’s handwriting. My particular favorite pro = “object to be beloved and played with – better than a dog anyway.” Favorite [...]

Camping and Zadie Smith

I’ve decided to make the most of my week off before summer teaching by heading down to Indiana tomorrow to visit friends and do some camping. An added bonus: Hillary Rodham Clinton will be making an appearance in Lafayette IN tomorrow, just a few hours after I get into town. I’m bringing a [...]

Why Morceau?

I like fragments, bits and pieces of things. Think a quilt, the way it is pieced together. Or the knits and purls that slowly become an afghan. Or the way broken glass refracts light. Think about “pieces” of music. When I was sixteen, my piano teacher corrected my vocabulary when I told her what “songs” [...]

The Power and the Glory

Reading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory I am struck by the enormous compassion of the novel – the compassion of the “whiskey priest” for those he encounters, and of Greene for his unlikely hero. In a preface to the book, John Updike writes “Greene’s identification with his anonymous hero – ‘a small man [...]

Modern British by Mail

Here’s a list of books I just ordered to jump start my dusty Modern British:

Elizabeth Bowen: The Heat of the Day
H.G. Wells: Ann Veronica
D.H. Lawrence: Women in Love and Sons and Lovers
Rudyard Kipling: Kim

While I wait for these books, I’ll be reading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. Also trying to decide where to [...]

Welcome

Welcome to Morceau! I’ll be using this space to share and mull over my summer reading. The ostensible focus is modern and contemporary lit (in preparation for comprehensive exams), but I’m open to the occasional blue highway.