st.donoghue
@stdonoghue-1945.bsky.social
Boston editor, critic, and stone-cold super-hottie
Remember: You don't have ADHD, you're not on any kind of spectrum, you don't suffer from any food allergies, and you're not experiencing "decision fatigue."
October 8, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Remember: You don't have ADHD, you're not on any kind of spectrum, you don't suffer from any food allergies, and you're not experiencing "decision fatigue."
Found today in a book. We are not amused!
May 21, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Found today in a book. We are not amused!
Reposted by st.donoghue
Reposted by st.donoghue
My latest review for Open Letters ⬇️
“On the stylistic front, Unger’s prose is unobtrusive, direct and delightfully prosecutorial when a swine hoves into view. This book isn’t an obsessive doctrinal diatribe, it is a fact by fact rebuttal of the official story.”
“On the stylistic front, Unger’s prose is unobtrusive, direct and delightfully prosecutorial when a swine hoves into view. This book isn’t an obsessive doctrinal diatribe, it is a fact by fact rebuttal of the official story.”
Den of Spies by Craig Unger — Open Letters Review
A new history of the negotiations that put Ronald Reagan in power
openlettersreview.com
February 23, 2025 at 11:30 PM
My latest review for Open Letters ⬇️
“On the stylistic front, Unger’s prose is unobtrusive, direct and delightfully prosecutorial when a swine hoves into view. This book isn’t an obsessive doctrinal diatribe, it is a fact by fact rebuttal of the official story.”
“On the stylistic front, Unger’s prose is unobtrusive, direct and delightfully prosecutorial when a swine hoves into view. This book isn’t an obsessive doctrinal diatribe, it is a fact by fact rebuttal of the official story.”
All these people writing articles & making videos about how there are no "books for men" anymore? It would be nice if the people writing those articles & making those videos goddam read more than 10 goddam books a goddam year so they goddam knew what they were goddam talking about. Yeesh.
February 18, 2025 at 2:20 AM
All these people writing articles & making videos about how there are no "books for men" anymore? It would be nice if the people writing those articles & making those videos goddam read more than 10 goddam books a goddam year so they goddam knew what they were goddam talking about. Yeesh.
Reposted by st.donoghue
Giles Harvey writes discerningly on "the fog of enriching implication" in Colm Tóibín's Eilis Lacey novels, "Brooklyn" from 2009 and last year's sequel "Long Island" www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
‘Bonds and Gestures’ | Giles Harvey
Long Island, Colm Tóbín’s sequel to his novel Brooklyn, is a concentrated study of the missed or canceled life.
www.nybooks.com
January 31, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Giles Harvey writes discerningly on "the fog of enriching implication" in Colm Tóibín's Eilis Lacey novels, "Brooklyn" from 2009 and last year's sequel "Long Island" www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
"The Venetian footfall and the Venetian cry," recalled Henry James when writing years later about "The Portrait of a Lady", "all talk there, wherever uttered, having the pitch of a call across the water - come in once more at the window."
January 29, 2025 at 4:38 PM
"The Venetian footfall and the Venetian cry," recalled Henry James when writing years later about "The Portrait of a Lady", "all talk there, wherever uttered, having the pitch of a call across the water - come in once more at the window."
From 10 years ago: Jedediah Purdy's "After Nature," written back in an era when science & religious faith were still separate things and we still had a chance - www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
<br/>Book Review: After Nature — Steve Donoghue
In his brilliant new book, Jedediah Purdy argues that humanity must face the collapse of nature using the three tools it knows best: politics, policy, and cold, hard cash
www.stevedonoghue.com
January 28, 2025 at 6:39 PM
From 10 years ago: Jedediah Purdy's "After Nature," written back in an era when science & religious faith were still separate things and we still had a chance - www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
Aretino's poor pet monkey, Monticchio, used to imitate Titian when he was painting at his easel. Visitors said Monticchio worked hard at his paintings, but nobody bought or preserved any of them.
January 28, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Aretino's poor pet monkey, Monticchio, used to imitate Titian when he was painting at his easel. Visitors said Monticchio worked hard at his paintings, but nobody bought or preserved any of them.
Eternal reminder to all those procrastinating ponderers out there: "Seven Types of Ambiguity" was written in two weeks by a 21-year-old undergraduate. Stop scrolling and get to work.
January 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Eternal reminder to all those procrastinating ponderers out there: "Seven Types of Ambiguity" was written in two weeks by a 21-year-old undergraduate. Stop scrolling and get to work.
Reposted by st.donoghue
“One of McGahern’s most striking childhood memories in ‘All Will Be Well’ is of reading indiscriminately from library books with such deep concentration that his sisters removed his shoes and placed a hat on his head without him noticing.”
@ssacks.bsky.social on Irish novelist John McGahern:
@ssacks.bsky.social on Irish novelist John McGahern:
Such a Schemozzle, by Sam Sacks
The beauty of John McGahern’s prose
harpers.org
January 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
“One of McGahern’s most striking childhood memories in ‘All Will Be Well’ is of reading indiscriminately from library books with such deep concentration that his sisters removed his shoes and placed a hat on his head without him noticing.”
@ssacks.bsky.social on Irish novelist John McGahern:
@ssacks.bsky.social on Irish novelist John McGahern:
"Dryden's discovery in the 1660s was not that plays and poems are worth discussing," writes the great critic George Watson, "but that they are worth discussing in print."
January 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
"Dryden's discovery in the 1660s was not that plays and poems are worth discussing," writes the great critic George Watson, "but that they are worth discussing in print."
Reposted by st.donoghue
What a pleasure to review Randall Fuller's smart and moving new book BRIGHT CIRCLE!
Hannah Joyner reviews a new group biography of five pioneering women in the transcendentalist movement, Bright Circle by Randall Fuller, out from Oxford University Press:
openlettersreview.com/posts/bright...
openlettersreview.com/posts/bright...
Bright Circle by Randall Fuller — Open Letters Review
How women experienced—and shaped—Transcendentalist thought in 19th-century New England.
openlettersreview.com
January 25, 2025 at 11:11 PM
What a pleasure to review Randall Fuller's smart and moving new book BRIGHT CIRCLE!
From 10 years ago - and from a 100% completely different world - Timothy Snyder's dark, brilliant "BlackEarth": www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
<br/>Book Review: Black Earth — Steve Donoghue
A harrowing and contentious new assessment of the Nazi war on the Jews of Europe.
www.stevedonoghue.com
January 25, 2025 at 5:13 PM
From 10 years ago - and from a 100% completely different world - Timothy Snyder's dark, brilliant "BlackEarth": www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
"I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation" - Somerset Maugham, who in 90 years experienced humorous resignation precisely 0 times.
January 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
"I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation" - Somerset Maugham, who in 90 years experienced humorous resignation precisely 0 times.
Reposted by st.donoghue
the premise of Good Will Hunting is so funny. "What if there was a boy who was a once in a lifetime genius, handsome, everybody likes him, but tragically he is from South Boston a handicap that threatens to ruin his entire life"
January 18, 2025 at 8:53 PM
the premise of Good Will Hunting is so funny. "What if there was a boy who was a once in a lifetime genius, handsome, everybody likes him, but tragically he is from South Boston a handicap that threatens to ruin his entire life"
"He loved the atmosphere of mystery: through labyrinthine sentences we pursue a dangerous precision" - a mid-century critic, very intriguingly, on the novels of Henry James
January 9, 2025 at 4:51 PM
"He loved the atmosphere of mystery: through labyrinthine sentences we pursue a dangerous precision" - a mid-century critic, very intriguingly, on the novels of Henry James
"There is no doubt that Thomas Wolfe was touched with genius. But genius is not so rare as all that" - so said Struthers Burt, innocent of genius, now completely forgotten.
January 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
"There is no doubt that Thomas Wolfe was touched with genius. But genius is not so rare as all that" - so said Struthers Burt, innocent of genius, now completely forgotten.
"I want to reach out with my records to the lonely sheep rancher in Nevada, or the farmer in Kansas, and bring him a glimpse of the ideal world of beauty and inspiration" -- the great Stokowski, speaking a rare, clear truth to Irving Kolodin
January 8, 2025 at 12:32 AM
"I want to reach out with my records to the lonely sheep rancher in Nevada, or the farmer in Kansas, and bring him a glimpse of the ideal world of beauty and inspiration" -- the great Stokowski, speaking a rare, clear truth to Irving Kolodin
From 10 years ago, my review of Jane Dawson's excellent biography of terrifying old John Knox: www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
<br/>Book Review: John Knox — Steve Donoghue
The firebrand preacher and founder of the Presbyterian denomination is the subject of a masterful new biography
www.stevedonoghue.com
January 7, 2025 at 8:05 PM
From 10 years ago, my review of Jane Dawson's excellent biography of terrifying old John Knox: www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
"I heard James Jones in his National Book Award acceptance speech struggle bravely, and in a sense admirably, with his Elizabethan references," Knopf's crusty old Harold Strauss once said. "His awkwardness suggested what his book also suggests: that he is not a well-read man." Ouch.
January 6, 2025 at 5:48 PM
"I heard James Jones in his National Book Award acceptance speech struggle bravely, and in a sense admirably, with his Elizabethan references," Knopf's crusty old Harold Strauss once said. "His awkwardness suggested what his book also suggests: that he is not a well-read man." Ouch.
From 10 years ago, a lovely scholarly edition of the major (but still minor, as I try to explain) poetry of Emerson: www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
<br/>Book Review: Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Major Poetry — Steve Donoghue
A thorough new study of the poetry of the great transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson
www.stevedonoghue.com
January 6, 2025 at 5:03 PM
From 10 years ago, a lovely scholarly edition of the major (but still minor, as I try to explain) poetry of Emerson: www.stevedonoghue.com/review-archi...
New from @columbiaup.bsky.social, a really interesting new look at the films & career of George Cukor, written with aplomb by veteran movie buff Joseph McBride. My @olreview.bsky.social review: openlettersreview.com/posts/george...
George Cukor's People by Joseph McBride — Open Letters Review
A new look at the films of the legendary George Cukor
openlettersreview.com
January 5, 2025 at 4:40 PM
New from @columbiaup.bsky.social, a really interesting new look at the films & career of George Cukor, written with aplomb by veteran movie buff Joseph McBride. My @olreview.bsky.social review: openlettersreview.com/posts/george...