Know It All
April 9, 2013
He was one of those infuriating people who was right most of the time and thought he was right all the time.
It is a vanity project and a writing closet, a treasure chest for news, views and reviews.
More prosaically, it provides a store house for my writing. Some of it is quirky – poems, sayings and asides. There are movie and book reviews, profiles and other articles from my past and present sojourn as a journalist. Plus my new book — The Dream Machine: A Novel of Future Past!
Novel
The Dream Machine: A Novel of Future Past
A thrilling, highly imaginative and tautly written journey back in time to find “the tool to unrule” a post-American fascism.
“Brilliant,” says National Book Award winner and MacArthur Genius Fellow Charles Johnson of “The Dream Machine: A Novel of Future Past.”
“A great tale, brilliantly told,” says violist and international recording artist Roger Chase. “There are surprises on every page, and the end, which comes only too soon, is a coda of marvelous drama, invention and imagination.”
Embarrassed by Founder, City of Evanston Now Claims It is Named for Famed TV Cowgirl
April 8, 2013
Evanston RoundTable, March 28, 2013
This was my contribution to our annual April Fools’ Day issue. (Leonard F. Slye was Roy Rogers’ real name.) The published story deleted most of the specifics in the fourth and fifth paragraphs to the controversy, which are true.
By Leo F. Slye
With mounting pressure to repudiate John Evans for his role in a notorious Indian massacre years after helping put Evanston on the map, the City Council last week issued a media advisory saying the real namesake of the City was none other than Dale Evans, famed TV cowgirl and wife of the even more famous TV cowboy Roy Rogers.
Ms. Evans, who passed away in 2001, could not be reached for comment, but the advisory pointed out that the actress was also an accomplished, singer, songwriter and best-selling author. From 1951 to 1957 she co-starred with her husband in the TV hit “The Roy Rogers Show.” “As to this other Evans, the one who arrived here in 1855, where is the proof [he also founded the City]?” the advisory asked.
The surprising action was taken shortly after the City Council went into a closed-door emergency session to deliberate, after which white smoke could be seen emanating from the building’s chimney. Neither the Mayor nor any Aldermen could be reached to elaborate on their somewhat-cryptic announcement.
On Reading Proust For Book Club
April 7, 2013
“On Reading Proust” is a hybrid: except for the incidents at the Y, it is all true. Call it creative non-fiction. Or Proustian.
Our public library sponsors an annual citywide book club called Mission Impossible, so named because only the most impossible-to-read classics are selected. What’s an impossible-to-read classic? One that by reputation is too big, too abstract or too abstruse to comprehend or enjoy. Think Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Or as Mark Twain said, a classic is “a book which people praise and don’t read.” But often these books are wonderfully readable, with the right help, and that is what the library provides in the form of an excellent introductory lecture and subsequent breakout discussion groups led by trained facilitators.
The first year the library made the obvious and preemptive choice: Joyce’s Ulysses. Of the 150 or so people who signed up, about a third actually made it to the end, nine months later. That is a phenomenal batting average as far as I’m concerned, having made it only to page 5. . . .
“No” and “Life of Pi” Reviewed
April 1, 2013
Evanston RoundTable, March 28, 2013 There are some vexing incongruities and problems that hamper “No,” the Chilean film starring Gael Garcia Bernal as Rene, a
Review of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ and ‘Flight’
March 14, 2013
Evanston RoundTable, March 14, 2013 There’s a lot that’s troubling about “Zero Dark Thirty,” perhaps the least of which is the controversy – which ultimately
Author Shaped by Evanston Scores with Debut Novel
March 14, 2013
Evanston RoundTable, March 14, 2013 Like many first-time writers, Matt Henderson Ellis’s first novel, “Keeping Bedlam At Bay in the Prague Café” is heavily drawn
‘Amour’: Art as Dark and Deep As Life
February 14, 2013
Evanston RoundTable, Feb. 14, 2013 Art is what makes beauty out of ugliness, renders despair into acceptance, and creates order and understanding from chaos. Without
Kelly Amonte Hiller: LaCrosse’s Winningest Coach
January 31, 2013
Evanston RoundTable, Jan. 31, 2013 Kelly Amonte Hiller’s office in Patten Gym on the Northwestern campus is casual and spare. There are few plaques and
Review of “Silver Linings Playbook”
January 20, 2013
Evanston RoundTable Jan. 17, 2013 There’s a line comedies can cross over, sometimes into stupidity, sometimes into cruelty. Either way it’s rarely amusing. Such is