Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%

Alex Lewis

Alex Lewis reviews 'The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them' by Elif Batuman

October 2010, no. 325 01 October 2010
Conventional wisdom has it that writing comes second to life. Young American journalist Elif Batuman has a different idea. ‘What if,’ she suggests, ‘instead of moving to New York, living in a garret, self-publishing your poetry and having love affairs in order to – some day – write it up as a novel for 21st century America – what if instead you went to Balzac’s house and read every w ... (read more)

Alex Lewis reviews 'I Can See My House From Here: UTS Writers’ Anthology 2010' edited by Alice Grundy et al.

February 2011, no. 328 04 May 2011
The great Russian short story writer Ivan Bunin said that in the process of becoming a writer, ‘one learns not to invent, but to see clearly – to see through the clichés of habit and association that disfigure sight. To see clearly and record – that is sufficient.’ What is most interesting about this new anthology is hearing a number of young Australian writers start to put aside childish ... (read more)