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Maureen Corrigan

Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, is a critic-in-residence and lecturer at Georgetown University. She is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers (Scribner) and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. Corrigan's literary memoir, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading! was published in 2005. Corrigan is also a reviewer and columnist for The Washington Post's Book World. In addition to serving on the advisory panel of The American Heritage Dictionary, she has chaired the Mystery and Suspense judges' panel of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

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Book Reviews
11:49 am
Wed November 16, 2011

A Quaint, Compelling 'Pilgrim' Tale In The New World

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Hugh Nissenson is also the author of <em>The Tree of Life</em>, <em>The Days of Awe</em> and <em>The Song of the Earth</em>.
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I'll admit, it's kind of hokey to be talking about a novel called The Pilgrim right before Thanksgiving. What's even more quaint is the fact that The Pilgrim is one of those straightforward works of historical fiction the likes of which we don't see so much anymore.

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Book Reviews
2:52 pm
Mon November 7, 2011

Life Without Plot In 'Leaving The Atocha Station'

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Ben Lerner is also the author of <em>Angle of Yaw</em>, <em>Mean Free Path</em> and <em>The Lichtenberg Figures</em>.
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Ben Lerner's debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station is one of the most compelling books about nothing I've ever read.

Ordinarily, I'm not a fan of this kind of spinning-one's-wheels-in-the-sand fiction. Austen and Dickens and Hammett got to me early and spoiled me: I like plot. But Lerner's offbeat little novel manages to convey what everyday life feels like before we impose the structure of plot on our experience.

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Book Reviews
8:57 am
Thu November 3, 2011

A Critic To Remember: Pauline Kael At The 'Movies'

<p>Pauline Kael was a film critic for <em>The New Yorker </em>from 1967 to 1991, as well as the author of several books, including <em>I Lost It at the Movies</em> and <em>For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies</em>.</p>
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Originally published on Thu November 3, 2011 11:16 am

To quote the immortal title of her 1965 collection of movie reviews, Pauline Kael may have "lost it at the movies," but she infinitely renewed her wide-eyed wonder as a moviegoer in her essays for The New Yorker magazine. Kael was no virgin as a critic when she started writing for The New Yorker in 1967 — but when she loved a movie, she always wrote like she was being touched for the very first time.

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