I was going to write this piece about A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, which is also a very good book, one that I loved, and one I recommend you read. I recently Netflixed “Apocalypse Now,” which for some reason I had never seen before, and the ending of that film reminded me of the ending of this book, which is to say they both involved the jungle and the darkness of the human soul and, in general, how life is not even remotely fair, and a lot of times quite terrible.

And then I was thinking about how hard it is to write a book with an unhappy ending these days, or rather, how hard it is to write a book with an unhappy ending and hope to get it published. …more

At what point in a writer’s career does their writing become able to be characterized? I mean specifically the point where you get to add “ian” or “esque” at the end of someone’s name …more