Articles by Ingrid Norton
Year with Short Novels: The Nihilism of Nathanael West
His short novels are the ‘ugly stepchildren’ of 20th century fiction, and yet his admirers are legion; A Year with Short Novels takes a look at Nathanael West and his two best-known works.
Of Form, E-Readers, and Thwarted Genius: End of a Year with Short Novels
In our Internet-fueled new century, can the in-between genre of the short novel survive? Or have novellas – with their speed and feral intensity – finally come into their own? Our Year with Short Novels concludes.
Year with Short Novels: True Grit & Greatness
Charles Portis’s “True Grit” features a young girl who’s all business and a grizzled gunslinger who’s all heart — but there’s far more complexity and humor to the story than the Hollywood pairing implies. Ingrid Norton looks at a great American novella.
A Year with Short Novels: Of Dogs & Men
J. R. Ackerley’s complex and marvelous novella “We Think the World of You”–in which two lonely, repressed people contend for the affections of a glorious dog–is the next work featured in “A Year with Short Novels.”
Year with Short Novels: Elizabeth Smart, Queen of Sheba
A wild fever-dream of a book, “By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept” careers between thrilling emotion and absurd histrionics–that spiky course is charted in this installment of The Year with Short Novels
Year with Short Novels: Love, the Limits of Narrative, & The Pilgrim Hawk
The twisty boundaries of narrative reliability are at the heart of Ingrid Norton’s discussion the neglected classic “The Pilgrim Hawk” as “A Year with Short Novels” continues.
Year with Short Novels: Diving into Atwood’s Surfacing
This new installment of the Year with Short Novels immerses itself in Margaret Atwood’s haunting second novel, Surfacing
Year with Short Novels: Breakfast at Sally Bowles’
Readers have adored Truman Capote’s iconic Holly Golightly; they might be amazed, then, by how much Capote borrowed from Christopher Isherwood’s Sally Bowles
Year with Short Novels: The Rooms of the Past
Ingrid Norton’s Year with Short Novels continues in this installment about William Maxwell’s problematically nostalgic novella So Long, See You Tomorrow
A Year with Short Novels: Awash with Conrad
It was only a matter of time before our Year with Short Novels got around to the most famous one of them all and traveled deep into The Heart of Darkness.
A Year with Short Novels: On Lifting Veils
The Lifted Veil, George Eliot’s dalliance with Gothic horror, turns out to be nearly as dense and cerebral as her masterpieces; though of course, in keeping with the theme of this monthly feature, it’s far far shorter.
A Year with Short Novels: “There is a bridge….”
The jewel-like perfection of Thornton Wilder’s “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” is the subject of Ingrid Norton’s scrutiny in this latest installment of “The Year of Short Novels”
The Sweetness of Short Novels
Doorstop literary tomes might still be the preferred signature grab for literary respectability, but short novels have always been every bit as compelling–and tougher to do well. Ingrid Norton introduces her Year with Short Novels.
A Year with Short Novels: J.L. Carr’s Chance for Renewal
In A Month in the Country, J.L. Carr explores that most challenging emotion to capture in fiction: happiness
Second Glance: “Today belongs to few and tomorrow to no one”
As Ingrid Norton reports, the eerie and heartbroken poems of W.S. Merwin’s The Lice continue to resonate thirty years on: whispering, creeping, shaking.
Hurricanes, Murders, and Music
Ned Sublette pens a loving portrait of New Orleans before Katrina struck. Ingrid Norton reviews The Year Before the Flood.
Thorns Too
In A Vindication of Love, Christina Nehring has set herself the task of reclaiming romantic love for the Twitter Age. Ingrid Norton rates the results.
It’s a Mystery: With Caviar Comes Money
Meet Artie Cohen, a Russian Jewish cop with a conscience. In Reggie Nadelson’s Londongrad, he’s got the weight of the world on one shoulder and New York crime on the other. Irma Heldman follows his travels in the latest “It’s a Mystery.”
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