
Swimming Pool
Later, in the house, he said: “Wait around and you’ll see Ava. She does grace us from time to time.”

Ally allies
After reciting the secret Gory Oath — “Yeti! Betty! Netty!” — we trudged upstairs.

The Foreign Correspondent
Much as Alan Furst likes historical fiction and World War II, he struggles mightily to breathe life into wooden characters.

Lawrence of Arabia
Lean's desert epic defines a genre and gives meaning to the word "sweep" —

Spleen
I’d over-painted the larynx. I’d botched the intestines. It stood to reason the penis had been spared my wrath.

Non c’è più
Frady brought a sheaf of poems. He said the writing kept him occupied in the worst of times.

The Usual Suspects
Here's betting Keyser Soze is Vladimir Putin's drinking buddy.

The Unknown Terrorist
Flanagan's hopelessly implausible terrorist yarn puts pole dancers and Bush-bashing in the same seething kettle.

Little Stalker
Here's a fictionalized Woody Allen parody that's actually wonderfully funny.

To the Castle and Back
Vaclav Havel is a one-man anecdote machine in this recollection of his Czech presidential years.

Jews Without Money
Michael Gold has written an partly-autobiographical screed about growing up as a Jew in Manhattan of 1900.