Monthly Archives: March 2009

Literature of Desire

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Fred Bubbers

One of the compliments that my fiction writing sometimes receives is the natural sounding dialogue.  While any writer will swoon over even the slightest compliment, when someone praises my dialogue, I can’t help but think of that Dolly Parton line, … Continue reading →

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A New Birth of Outrage

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Fred Bubbers

“Where’s the outrage?” the virtuous and moral Bill Bennett famously asked in his 1999 book, The Death of Outrage.  Well, outrage is back, but I don’t think it’s what Mr. Bennett had in mind when he documented the moral failures … Continue reading →

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Painters of the Suburban Landscape

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Fred Bubbers

This morning I was reading a New York Times review of Cheever: A Life, Blake Bailey’s new biography of John Cheever, and I was reminded of the recent passing of John Updike.  For me, it is nearly impossible to think … Continue reading →

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When a Soldier Makes it Home

Posted on March 7, 2009 by Fred Bubbers

One afternoon when I was eight or nine, I was playing stickball in the street with some neighborhood kids and a fight broke out.  Hearing the commotion, an old man who had been sitting on his front porch watching us … Continue reading →

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Grace in territory held largely by the devil

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Fred Bubbers

This week at Salon.com, Allen Barra has published a review of a new biography of Flannery O’Connor.  My first encounter with O’Connor was as a freshman English major in college, when I read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” … Continue reading →

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