Posts by David Benjamin
Loo-ie, Loo-ie … Me gotta go now
by David Benjamin “The trail of lime trees outside our building is still a public loo … where else are they supposed to go to the toilet in a city where public toilets are about as common as UFO sightings?” —Sarah Turnbull, Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris PARIS—Anyone who has…
Read MoreThe great Texas fart fuss
by David Benjamin “Several of the books in question in Llano County have L.G.B.T.Q. themes or characters, or addressed racial inequality, but they also include goofy children’s titles, such as a series of picture books about flatulence.” —N.Y.Times, 13 April PARIS—Sometimes, I think Congress decided to annex Texas to the USA for the sake…
Read MoreThe campus Communist
by David Benjamin “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to say what people do not want to hear.” — George Orwell MADISON, Wis.—Although I can’t track down the quotation, I recall somehow that Lillian Hellman once said something to the effect that feminism is the art of winning small battles…
Read MoreCumulative, agglutinative, intuitive
by David Benjamin Recently, during a book talk, a reader asked a question that stumped me for a moment. “When you start a novel,” he asked, “do you concentrate on plot or character development?” After a pregnant pause, I chose “plot” and bumbled my way through an explanation of how characters tend to be exposed……
Read MoreMassacre news: One-size-fits-all
by David Benjamin “Lord, when babies die at a church school, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayers.” — Senate Chaplain Barry Black PARIS—Twenty-four years ago, in the innocent early days of America’s mass-shooting craze, I realized that atrocities like Devin Kelley’s church slaughter in Sutherland Springs, Stephen Paddocks’ turkey…
Read MoreEpitaphs for thirty-odd presidents
by David Benjamin “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” — Bill Clinton MADISON, Wis.—Listening to the news the other night, I heard an oft-repeated phrase that seemed to encapsulate what an ex-president had said and done, what he meant to America and how he’ll be remembered. Ideally, this handful of words…
Read MoreFinding the “Everyman” sweet spot
Relatability is an objective not common to all serious writers. There are snobs amongst us. But the ability to evoke the spirit of everyman—or everywoman—can be a powerful bond between author and audience. by David Benjamin Surprisingly, it’s not the aspiration of every serious writer to “engage” with readers. There are authors whose target……
Read MoreThe sound of love (or maybe just juvenile infatuation)
by David Benjamin “For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been’.” — John Greenleaf Whittier MADISON, Wis. — Lately, I’ve been haunted my the memory of a girl who broke my heart 54 years ago. I suffer these pangs of nostalgia because my car has a compact…
Read MoreWhen to stop reading a book
by David Benjamin It’s not true that reading a book is always time well spent. This only applies to good books. There’s a lot of crap out there. Herewith, a few hints about how to sniff out bad prose before you’ve wasted too much time. Since I became a bibliophile, early in my grammar-school days,……
Read MoreThe closing of the famous mind
by David Benjamin “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility; humility is endless.” — T.S. Eliot MADISON, Wis. — For a writer, humility is a survival strategy. I get reminders of this on a daily basis. The silver lining about being humiliated, often by anonymous strangers, is that the…
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