Review Sep 7, 2013

Amusing graphic novel about bipolar disorder

by Rachel Cooke

Until she was 30, Ellen Forney, an award-winning Seattle-based artist, took her slightly unusual personality for granted. Her obsession with exercise, her impulsive sexuality, her bouts of ecstasy: she considered these things, however uncomfortable, a major part of who she was. After all, aren’t ...

National Jul 30, 2013

Hiroshima memoirs still draw readers

by Takuma Obinata

A number of survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima nearly 70 years ago have left memories of their terrifying experiences in the form of poetry and other writings that are cherished by their relatives and friends and continue to attract readers. Tamiki Hara ...

Review Jul 27, 2013

Story of return to bachelorhood provides vicarious experience

by Nicholas Clee

‘The difficult thing with a column,” the late Margaret Thatcher once told the journalist Jenny McCartney, “is thinking of something new to say every week.” Yes, indeed. BITTER EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT ME, by Nicholas Lezard. Faber and Faber, 2013, 304 pp., £9.99 (paperback) But ...

Review Apr 7, 2013

Processing the bitter to a durable, beautiful form

by Joseph S. O'leary

KICKING THE BLACK MAMBA: Life, Alcohol and Death, by Robert Anthony Welch. Darton, Longman and Todd, 2012, 240 pp., ￡12.99 (paperback) The late Bob Welch’s many friends will read this heart-rending elegy for his son, Egan, with total absorption. Some in Japan may recall ...

Review Mar 10, 2013

An economist's guide to romance

by Tim Lewis

THE ROMANTIC ECONOMIST, by William Nicolson. Short Books, 2013, 304 pp., ￡12 (hardcover) Right at the end of “The Romantic Economist” — nonspoiler alert! — the author William Nicolson starts referring in the third person to “William Nicolson,” the protagonist of the pages. It ...