Barry Stewart Levy's Blog
October 2, 2025
Book Review #152
The Wickedest
by Caleb Femi
A wonderfully poetic, alive, joyful, propulsive, visceral, in-your-face, revolutionary, angry, pissed-off and piss-off, you-are-there experience. In short, Caleb Femi "takes you there." And "there" is The Wickedest, a late night rave in a British, Blacks-only club, with its low-income, marginalized community dancing the night away as if their lives depended on it. No pun intended, but this is a rave review.
by Caleb Femi
A wonderfully poetic, alive, joyful, propulsive, visceral, in-your-face, revolutionary, angry, pissed-off and piss-off, you-are-there experience. In short, Caleb Femi "takes you there." And "there" is The Wickedest, a late night rave in a British, Blacks-only club, with its low-income, marginalized community dancing the night away as if their lives depended on it. No pun intended, but this is a rave review.
September 29, 2025
Book Review #151
New York Stories
New York Magazine
As you might expect with a book of this length with dozens of "stories" or essays, many are good, several are not so good and a few, such as Gail Sheehy's "The Secret of Grey Gardens," are excellent. Sheehy's portrait of Big Edie and Little Edie is incisive, sensitive, empathetic and ultimately very moving.
Another outstanding piece is "Woody and Me" by Nancy Jo Sales. It is -- thank Heavens! -- not another hatchet job of you-know-who. It is, instead, a bitter sweet retelling of her correspondence with her idol, Woody Allen, when she was only thirteen and he was forty-two and at a turning point in his film career. It is an achingly honest coming-of-age tale.
There are a number of essays that, for lack of a better word, are "snarky" and ugly, such as Ron Rosenbaum's "Sid Vicious and Nauseating Nancy: A Love Story" and Julie Baumgold's "Unanswered Prayers: The Death and Life of Truman Capote" which is particularly painful reading.
On the other hand, Joyce Wadler's "My Breast: One Woman's Cancer Story" is told with bravery and heart and humor.
And Michael Daly is to be commended for his unflinching portrait of a good cop gone wrong in "Crack in the Shield."
But my personal favorite is probably George Plimpton's laugh-out-loud "If You've Been Afraid to Go to Elaine's These Past Twenty Years, Here's What You've Missed." It also has the funniest final sentence in this volume of "New York Stories."
New York Magazine
As you might expect with a book of this length with dozens of "stories" or essays, many are good, several are not so good and a few, such as Gail Sheehy's "The Secret of Grey Gardens," are excellent. Sheehy's portrait of Big Edie and Little Edie is incisive, sensitive, empathetic and ultimately very moving.
Another outstanding piece is "Woody and Me" by Nancy Jo Sales. It is -- thank Heavens! -- not another hatchet job of you-know-who. It is, instead, a bitter sweet retelling of her correspondence with her idol, Woody Allen, when she was only thirteen and he was forty-two and at a turning point in his film career. It is an achingly honest coming-of-age tale.
There are a number of essays that, for lack of a better word, are "snarky" and ugly, such as Ron Rosenbaum's "Sid Vicious and Nauseating Nancy: A Love Story" and Julie Baumgold's "Unanswered Prayers: The Death and Life of Truman Capote" which is particularly painful reading.
On the other hand, Joyce Wadler's "My Breast: One Woman's Cancer Story" is told with bravery and heart and humor.
And Michael Daly is to be commended for his unflinching portrait of a good cop gone wrong in "Crack in the Shield."
But my personal favorite is probably George Plimpton's laugh-out-loud "If You've Been Afraid to Go to Elaine's These Past Twenty Years, Here's What You've Missed." It also has the funniest final sentence in this volume of "New York Stories."
September 28, 2025
Book Review #150
Going Home in the Dark
by Dean Koontz
This latest Dean Koontz novel is a disappointing read. The four main characters are neither fully developed nor interesting. What there is of a storyline lacks dramatic action and suspense, Even the monsters aren't scary.
Hopefully Dean Koontz will again hit his stride with his next book.
by Dean Koontz
This latest Dean Koontz novel is a disappointing read. The four main characters are neither fully developed nor interesting. What there is of a storyline lacks dramatic action and suspense, Even the monsters aren't scary.
Hopefully Dean Koontz will again hit his stride with his next book.
June 14, 2025
Book Review #149
Young Adam
by Alexander Trocchi
This is the existential tale of Joe, a young man who is as much a mystery to himself as he is to the reader, who works on a barge in Scotland, where he and his boss discover the lifeless body of a young woman in the water. We eventually learn of Joe's relationship to Cathie, the dead woman, and of his involvement with her death. There is, in fact, throughout the story, the pervasive sense of mortality. While I was reading the book, the words that kept coming to mind were: bleak, grim, grimy, sordid, ugly, and graphically sexual. After finishing the novel, I wondered why Trocchi chose the title "Young Adam" even though his protagonist's name is Joe. Adam is, of course, a biblical reference, suggesting that Joe, too, is a fallen figure.
by Alexander Trocchi
This is the existential tale of Joe, a young man who is as much a mystery to himself as he is to the reader, who works on a barge in Scotland, where he and his boss discover the lifeless body of a young woman in the water. We eventually learn of Joe's relationship to Cathie, the dead woman, and of his involvement with her death. There is, in fact, throughout the story, the pervasive sense of mortality. While I was reading the book, the words that kept coming to mind were: bleak, grim, grimy, sordid, ugly, and graphically sexual. After finishing the novel, I wondered why Trocchi chose the title "Young Adam" even though his protagonist's name is Joe. Adam is, of course, a biblical reference, suggesting that Joe, too, is a fallen figure.
May 25, 2025
Book Review #148
Wild Spaces
by S.L. Coney
After finishing the book, I immediately reread it, nearly in its entirety, in one sitting, in order to better understand the novel's many mysteries. In fact, on that first reading I thought the book was almost too mysterious, with a number of its cryptic plot points left unresolved. The second reading did indeed help to clarify some of those mysteries.
This is a coming of age tale mingled with elements of physical and psychological horror. The language is poetic, visual, visceral and enigmatic. Even after that second reading, I found myself skimming through the pages, noticing words and phrases and images that now took on added meanings. It is a haunting tale of an eleven-year-old boy confronting demons within his family and himself.
by S.L. Coney
After finishing the book, I immediately reread it, nearly in its entirety, in one sitting, in order to better understand the novel's many mysteries. In fact, on that first reading I thought the book was almost too mysterious, with a number of its cryptic plot points left unresolved. The second reading did indeed help to clarify some of those mysteries.
This is a coming of age tale mingled with elements of physical and psychological horror. The language is poetic, visual, visceral and enigmatic. Even after that second reading, I found myself skimming through the pages, noticing words and phrases and images that now took on added meanings. It is a haunting tale of an eleven-year-old boy confronting demons within his family and himself.
May 21, 2025
Book Review #147
Little Mercy: Poems
by Robin Walter
I cannot recall the last time I came across poetry -- not to mention an entire book of poems -- that so evoked what it means to be alive, while comparing life's passages with those of nature. Robin Walter's language is evocative, playful, plaintive, surprising and sprinkled with aha moments. She is, quite simply, in the truest sense of the word, wonderful!
by Robin Walter
I cannot recall the last time I came across poetry -- not to mention an entire book of poems -- that so evoked what it means to be alive, while comparing life's passages with those of nature. Robin Walter's language is evocative, playful, plaintive, surprising and sprinkled with aha moments. She is, quite simply, in the truest sense of the word, wonderful!
January 31, 2025
Book Review #146
Dogs & Wolves
by Hervé Le Corre Howard Curtis (translator)
Barry Levy's review
Very disappointing. This is a work of literary fiction and frankly I wish it weren't. There is far too much description and way too many metaphors. I wish it were simply a crime novel about a guy released from prison who gets involved with his missing brother's coked up, crazy girlfriend and her ties with hoodlums out for revenge. That story line might have made for an intriguing French film noir with a tough guy who falls for a deceitful and deadly femme fatale. Instead, the plot meanders for nearly 300 pages and concludes with a confusing tale of who killed whom, followed by a disappointingly abrupt ending.
by Hervé Le Corre Howard Curtis (translator)
Barry Levy's review
Very disappointing. This is a work of literary fiction and frankly I wish it weren't. There is far too much description and way too many metaphors. I wish it were simply a crime novel about a guy released from prison who gets involved with his missing brother's coked up, crazy girlfriend and her ties with hoodlums out for revenge. That story line might have made for an intriguing French film noir with a tough guy who falls for a deceitful and deadly femme fatale. Instead, the plot meanders for nearly 300 pages and concludes with a confusing tale of who killed whom, followed by a disappointingly abrupt ending.
June 21, 2024
Book Review #145
Bartleby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville
"Bartleby the Scrivener" is Herman Melville's curious, confounding, frustrating, enigmatic, absurdist, funny, sad, touching, Existential, individualistic, biblical, spiritual tale of a man who would prefer not to...
When he is thrust upon (or perhaps bestowed upon) his employer, the novella's narrator, Bartleby becomes his responsibility, as well as his providence, and, ultimately, his cross to bear. While torn between banishing Bartleby and caring for him, in the end he cannot deny the younger man his destiny: to waste away and join the souls whose correspondences he accumulated and read and burned when he once worked as a clerk in the Dead Letters Office.
While Melville's story may well be open to a wide range of interpretations, no one can argue that his final words provide a moving epitaph for his title character. "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"
by Herman Melville
"Bartleby the Scrivener" is Herman Melville's curious, confounding, frustrating, enigmatic, absurdist, funny, sad, touching, Existential, individualistic, biblical, spiritual tale of a man who would prefer not to...
When he is thrust upon (or perhaps bestowed upon) his employer, the novella's narrator, Bartleby becomes his responsibility, as well as his providence, and, ultimately, his cross to bear. While torn between banishing Bartleby and caring for him, in the end he cannot deny the younger man his destiny: to waste away and join the souls whose correspondences he accumulated and read and burned when he once worked as a clerk in the Dead Letters Office.
While Melville's story may well be open to a wide range of interpretations, no one can argue that his final words provide a moving epitaph for his title character. "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"
May 27, 2024
Book Review #144
Antiquity
by Hanna Johansson
Hanna Johansson's "Antiquity" is a beautifully written novel and a remarkable debut of loneliness and hidden desires, obsessions and memories, along with power struggles and fears of aging and loss. Kira Josefsson's translation from Swedish to English is superb.
by Hanna Johansson
Hanna Johansson's "Antiquity" is a beautifully written novel and a remarkable debut of loneliness and hidden desires, obsessions and memories, along with power struggles and fears of aging and loss. Kira Josefsson's translation from Swedish to English is superb.
April 29, 2024
Book Review #143
The Christmas Guest
by Peter Swanson
Peter Swanson's "The Christmas Guest" is a nasty little novella that will haunt you after you finish the final pages. It is a sad and disturbing tale of innocence and evil, friendship and betrayal, deception and murder, and visitations by the dead who not rest during the holiday season.
by Peter Swanson
Peter Swanson's "The Christmas Guest" is a nasty little novella that will haunt you after you finish the final pages. It is a sad and disturbing tale of innocence and evil, friendship and betrayal, deception and murder, and visitations by the dead who not rest during the holiday season.
