A remarkable sweep over thirty years of Indian history through the eyes of a Muslim citizen. Truly deserving of all its praise.

Deutscher's first volume of his massive three-volume study takes us through the Revolution and the end of the Civil War. He doesn't pull any punches drawing a portrait of a very complex person.

Remarkable stuff by Dave Eggers, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers.

These stories are mainly very good. The division Chabon chose -- the non-Shapiro stories and the Shapiro stories -- seems logical and it is. The Shapiro stories get better as the go along. The last is the best.

Some interesting literary experiments, but ultimately not as engaging as Abish's earlier work.

Beckett didn't like this play, his first, and refused to translate it into English or have it published. I don't know why; it's a great farce and has some really innovative techniques for the time. NOTE: Get the British translation published by Faber.

JPS's commentary somehow makes even this, the crashing bore of Torah, interesting. Good work.

Stunning work by a great poet.

An interesting story, but not up to Grossman's usual standards.

A tour de force of postmodernism, prefiguring Pynchon's MASON & DIXON by two decades.

Irving's third novel offers more sex and Germans. How did he make the quantum leap from this to GARP? The world may never know.

Beckett's first novel, published in the wake of his death, is his most Irish work ever -- written in English and then ignored for many years. One wonders why, as it's funnier than much of his later work.

Fun flash fiction from the king.

A lot of good, metafictional fun.

So far, I've been liking Chabon's short fiction better than his full-length work. This collection of stories is no exception.

Kafka was the master. Thank God for Max Brod not burning his manuscripts.

An interesting set of five plays. The longer ones, particularly BLACKEN (on which his novel was based), are quite good. Still, I enjoy his fiction more.

More good clean fun from the author of GARP.

I've had this book lying around for years and finally decided to read it: good decision on my part. Mostly very, very good.

Salinger somehow manages to make a fight between a boyfriend and girlfriend and a subsequent emotional breakdown interesting. Makes me wish I'd read his stuff years ago.