Roger Rosenblatt's Reading List

The author, most recently, of the novel "Thomas Murphy" would like to meet Mary Shelley: "I'd ask her who the monster is meant to be. . . . Then I'd ask her how a 19-year-old comes up with this stuff."

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By the Book: Roger Rosenblatt (2016)

NYT By the Book column (2016-01-07).

Source: www.nytimes.com

An Imaginary Life

David Malouf · Buy on Amazon

"David Malouf's "An Imaginary Life," I'm reading for the second time. Malouf's novel, a beauty, is about Ovid after he was banished from Rome to live in the wild among barbarians."

The Greeks and the Irrational

E.R. Dodds · Buy on Amazon

"E. R. Dodds's "The Greeks and the Irrational," about a world and a time full of magic. The book leaves you asking, with as much fascination as fear, how much of life is a dream."

Someone

Alice McDermott · Buy on Amazon

"Alice McDermott's "Someone." At the start of the novel, a sweet, hopeful girl dies by falling down the cellar stairs... the author's gentle manipulation of the reader's emotions made me gulp with the discovery that I'd been thinking of the dead girl all along."

The Horse's Mouth

Joyce Cary · Buy on Amazon

"I reread Joyce Cary's "The Horse's Mouth" a few weeks ago, about the wild-and-crazy painter and scam artist Gulley Jimson."

Speak, Memory

Vladimir Nabokov · Buy on Amazon

""Speak, Memory," recently or ever. Such a gorgeous blast."

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