Click on the arrow icon beside each category to display or hide all items within the chosen category. Summaries of each page may be hidden or shown by clicking the plus icon next each item. Use the Options menu to expand or contract all items, display or hide summaries or sort the table of contents.
Table of Contents
- Banana Republican Blues
June 5, 2011, 13:31
This mildly dystopian farce concerns the misadventures of a bankrupt plutocrat seeking work in the hospitality trades.
- Chapter Three
September 22, 2012, 16:44
The Story of Ophelia’s Darling Eddie was still in a snit with himself over his lack of life skills when his scanner squawked again. Having forgotten his…
- Chapter Four
September 22, 2012, 17:06
Darlene I gather from your maunderings that you must be in Newark now, pulling some little ruse on Maude. You walk down the an exit ramp until she disappears,…
- Chapter Five
September 22, 2012, 17:28
Eddie Earns a Wage Eddie cruised the truck stop just to the west of town, one of those ultramodern places, all plastic and stainless steel, with acres of…
- Store
March 14, 2013, 12:47
- Chapter Two
December 4, 2012, 21:19
The Love Interest Departs New York Adapted from the diary of Cheyenne Warrington I am trying to imagine you -- from these notes that you have written -- at…
- privacy
April 3, 2013, 19:48
All rights to privacy strictly respected. No sale of information to anyone ever.
- Site Map
October 5, 2011, 14:33
This page contains the site table of contents. Use it to quickly find content on this website.
- Blog Posts
- Category: Announcements (4)
- Books for Wall Street Occupiers by: bonalibro
October 8, 2011, 22:45
I've begun a new Kickstarter campaign called Books for Occupiers. For each contribution, you will be sent a paperback copy of Banana Republican Blues,…
- New Work in Progress by: bonalibro
June 26, 2011, 13:03
Join the author as he creates a new work of fiction, a genre bending mystery in the grand tradition of literary farce.
- ABNA Semifinal results by: bonalibro
May 16, 2011, 13:04
Moonbeam Highway misses the cut for the semi-final of the ABNA. ABNA Publisher Weekly Reviewer Wall Street wizards, Christian conservatives, and preening…
- ABNA Quarterfinal results by: bonalibro
March 23, 2011, 04:16
I am pleased to announce that Moonbeam Highway made it through to the Quarterfinal round with two very positive reviews from the judges. ABNA Expert…
- Books for Wall Street Occupiers by: bonalibro
- Category: Reviews (6)
- Heart of Darkness - WTF? by: bonalibro
April 6, 2013, 09:40
Equateur. - Ancienne station de l’Etat (1889) - p. 289 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I just finished rereading Heart of Darkness, as I've been thinking…
- Dogma, by Lars Iyer by: bonalibro
March 7, 2012, 23:03
Lars Iyer is a well known figure of the literary blogosphere, and as a relative neophyte in the space, I only recently came across his name, but liking what I…
- These Dreams of You: A Novel by Steve Erickson by: bonalibro
March 2, 2012, 23:11
Steve Erickson's ninth novel, These Dreams of You, traces the travails of a contemporary American family following their adoption of an Ethiopian child,…
- What Happened to Liberal Democracy? A brief review of two books. by: bonalibro
August 15, 2011, 19:53
Sheldon Wolin, Democracy Incorporated and Chris Hedges Death of the Liberal Class
- The Paradox of Feminism in Norman Rush’s Mating. by: bonalibro
May 30, 2011, 21:46
An interesting literary and political paradox.
- by: bonalibro
October 8, 2010, 21:25
In Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster describes three types of reader. The second type, when asked “What does a novel do?” replies: “Why it tells a…
- Heart of Darkness - WTF? by: bonalibro
- Category: Interviews (2)
- The Next Big Thing- tag Interview with Tim Chambers Author of Banana Republican Blues by: bonalibro
March 10, 2012, 23:07
Where did you get the idea for it? I wanted to write a sort of blues, a story of loss and disappointment that would, nonetheless, be a joy to read. I…
- Interview with Chip Bishop, author of The Lion and the Journalist. by: bonalibro
October 26, 2011, 14:02
The Lion and the Journalist is a new title from Lyons Press. It first in the Fall of 2009 on Authonomy.com. I was the first to spot it and champion it to other…
- The Next Big Thing- tag Interview with Tim Chambers Author of Banana Republican Blues by: bonalibro
- Category: Commentary (67)
- An Open Letter to John Mauldin by: bonalibro
May 1, 2013, 22:43
Debt, Growth, and the Austerity Debate | Outside the Box Investment Newsletter | Mauldin Economics. Two weeks ago I wrote about the current debate over the…
- Peter Wood and the Bowdoin College Flapdoodle by: bonalibro
April 14, 2013, 19:45
http://live.wsj.com/video/opinion-liberal-academics-gone-wild/A1C40FDF-1C8B-4905-9B7E-5FCC9CA0CF50.html?mod=WSJ_article_outbrain&obref=obnetwork#!A1C40FDF-1…
- Updating Reaganomics - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
February 18, 2013, 13:51
Ramesh Ponnuru (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Updating Reaganomics - NYTimes.com. Just as a broken clock can be right once a day, so a broken policy can be right…
- Obama Wins for whom? | Michael Hudson by: bonalibro
November 16, 2012, 21:00
English: Barack Obama Deutsch: Barack Obama (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Obama Wins for whom? | Michael Hudson. Does Dr. Hudson honestly wish to…
- The Real Referendum - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
October 1, 2012, 18:08
English: Mug shot of Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949). Charles Ponzi was born in Italy and became known as a swindler for his money scheme.…
- Audacity, not Character in High Finance by: bonalibro
September 7, 2012, 15:14
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/opinion/brooks-why-democrats-lead.html?_r=1&hp You want to get to the root of it, Brooks? It comes from a famous letter…
- Romney's Disappointment - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
August 31, 2012, 20:08
Poor Mitt, I share Romney's disappointment, but compared with his predecessor, Obama has done a much better job of stimulating economic output. Under the…
- Party of Strivers - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
August 31, 2012, 16:09
When I was in high school, there was a boy in my class who considered me either a rival or a dunce, I still don't know which, but I was one of the strivers,…
- Identity Politics Run Amok - The Conversation - The Chronicle of Higher Education by: bonalibro
August 31, 2012, 14:29
Identity Politics Run Amok - The Conversation - The Chronicle of Higher Education. If I may be so bold as to introduce a segue, another sort of identity…
- Average Is Over, Part II - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
August 8, 2012, 17:53
Where do you get your information from? If you neo-liberals werent so intent on blaming it all on the teachers unions, you might look beyond achievement test…
- Liberals' Huge Blind Spot Regarding Conservative Intellectuals - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education by: bonalibro
July 18, 2012, 19:34
Re: the following: Liberals' Huge Blind Spot Regarding Conservative Intellectuals - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education. ..to me, it boils down to…
- Comment on David Brooks' column on Romney Vs Obama 7/17 by: bonalibro
July 17, 2012, 15:29
In his column, The Capitalism Debate, on Romney vs Obama, David Brooks does much of what he accuses Obama of doing. He disingenuously portrays the…
- My Comment on Steven Almond's "Liberals are Ruining America.." by: bonalibro
June 12, 2012, 07:26
Liberals Are Ruining America. I Know Because I Am One. - NYTimes.com. What we think of as the Left today is very different from what it was fifty years ago.…
- Do We Need Stories, You Ask? by: bonalibro
March 31, 2012, 22:20
Tim Parks in the New York Review of Books, asks Do We Need Stories? If one starts with the assumption that we read novels merely to see our lives…
- De Niro Says Meant No Offense With First Lady Joke - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
March 21, 2012, 21:19
De Niro Says Meant No Offense With First Lady Joke - NYTimes.com. Good on De Niro for telling the joke. To me, what it says is that Michelle has been such an…
- Pandering Political Correctness by: bonalibro
March 20, 2012, 14:16
Great American Losers by Elaine Blair | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books. An excellent article on male novelists and how they write for female readers.…
- 'Religious Freedom' Issues and Pederasty in the Catholic Church by: bonalibro
March 9, 2012, 07:27
'Religious Freedom' Issues, Part 2: Catholics and Contraception - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education. I was having it out with one Mavprof, an…
- Reforms for the New Upper Class - Charles Murray - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
March 8, 2012, 13:43
Reforms for the New Upper Class - NYTimes.com. Charles Murray's proposed solutions to the problems of inequality and upper class advantage are woefully short…
- Renegade — Henry Miller and the Making of ‘Tropic of Cancer.’ — Why do men revel in the degradation of women? by: bonalibro
January 30, 2012, 13:50
Renegade — Henry Miller and the Making of ‘Tropic of Cancer.’ Why do men revel in the degradation of women? Jeannette Winterson's review of…
- Willard "Mittens" Romney is a Plutomaniac by: bonalibro
January 21, 2012, 05:58
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/opinion/brooks-the-wealth-issue.html?ref=opinion When I was a scholarship student in prep school I remember seeing a lower…
- Another Comment Censored by the NYTimes - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
January 9, 2012, 18:10
Opportunity Is More Important Than Economic Mobility - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com. As a dogmatist for the Heritage Foundation, your solutions sound like…
- Charlie Rose - Rep. Barney Frank by: bonalibro
January 7, 2012, 20:44
Charlie Rose - Rep. Barney Frank. You really tipped your hand, Mr. Rose, in that fight with the Congressman over the private sector doing it better. The…
- The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value - Forbes by: bonalibro
January 4, 2012, 22:18
The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value - Forbes. As one who has followed the stock market for nearly twenty years, I've been unimpressed…
- Tenure's Dirty Little Secret - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education by: bonalibro
January 4, 2012, 13:07
Tenure's Dirty Little Secret - Commentary - The Chronicle of Higher Education. I notice Milton Greenberg does not refer to the infamous letter of Lewis…
- Comment on David Brooks, Midlife Crisis Economics by: bonalibro
December 28, 2011, 10:43
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/opinion/brooks-midlife-crisis-economics.html The type of big government is exactly the question I would address. The type…
- Comments on Stanley Fish, The Old Order Changeth by: bonalibro
December 28, 2011, 10:40
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/the-old-order-changeth/ The Digital Humanities, come to save us all. What, exactly, are they anyway? The…
- Tax Inequality, Not the Rich? by: bonalibro
December 19, 2011, 15:51
Tax inequality?Ian Ayres of Yale and Aaron Edlin of Berkeley presented an innovative tax proposal in today's NYTimes. To tax inequality is an interesting idea,…
- The New York Times Wouldn't Take My Comment (for twelve hours). by: bonalibro
December 5, 2011, 20:48
As I wrote on Paul Krugman's column today submitted at 11:40 p.m. EST, (I will try and recreate the gist since comments now disappear as soon as they are…
- Obama tells Labor: F*** Y** by: bonalibro
November 29, 2011, 11:34
The Future of the Obama Coalition I suppose it was inevitable that the Jackass party would abandon the last leg of its traditional base in favor of…
- Examining the big lie: How the facts of the economic crisis stack up | The Big Picture by: bonalibro
November 27, 2011, 12:47
In Economics 101, the economics faculties used to trot out the “Tragedy of the Commons” problem to show us how inferior socialism was. The thesis was later…
- Craven Political Crudités - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
November 27, 2011, 11:42
Taking issue with another comment, Josiah Wright speaks to a constituency that has largely been left out in this country. It is a constituency of loyal and…
- The Enduring Cult of Kennedy - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
November 27, 2011, 11:25
You can say what you like about Kennedy, but he did get the media to shine a spotlight on the great unfinished business of Democracy. I was only eight years…
- The Value of a Well Made Thing. by: bonalibro
November 23, 2011, 07:56
One of the points I make in my book, Banana Republican Blues lies in following passage: Eddie spent his night in jail pondering his situation and composing…
- A Capitalist Muses on Profiting from Communism by: bonalibro
November 15, 2011, 15:47
Wouldn't it be grand if the company could move operations to totalitarian Communist countries where workers are strictly disciplined and wages are suppressed.…
- Comment on The Campaign Jungle - NYTimes 11/13 by: bonalibro
November 13, 2011, 22:05
The Campaign Jungle - NYTimes.com. As the Abramoff interview on 60 Minutes last weekend made quite plain, the corruption has been there for a very long…
- Comment on The Public Editor NYT 11/13 by: bonalibro
November 13, 2011, 20:20
Who Is Occupy Wall Street? - NYTimes.com. Those who view Occupy Wall Street dimly have plenty of venues available to them to make their dim views known. So…
- Comment on Frank Bruni's column 11/13 by: bonalibro
November 13, 2011, 20:18
Gall in High Places - NYTimes.com. Having spent three years in Italy, I think it is safe to say that Berlusconi got away with it because he embodied the…
- Comment on Tom Friedman's Column 11/13 by: bonalibro
November 13, 2011, 20:16
The Last Person - NYTimes.com. India sees itself as a developing country and its people see themselves as having a mission. What that mission seems to be is…
- Comment on Joe Nocera, Teach with the Enemy by: bonalibro
November 8, 2011, 22:19
Joe Nocera, Teaching With the Enemy makes some excellent points about a much maligned institution. Great teachers are rare, but one can encounter them…
- Comment on Deepak Tripathi How Capitalism Flopped by: bonalibro
November 8, 2011, 21:10
How Capitalism Flopped offers a very concise analysis of our present situation. My comment is as follows. Economics 101 teaches us that a shift in the…
- Telling Americans to Vote, or Else - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
November 6, 2011, 20:03
Telling Americans to Vote, or Else - NYTimes.com. This is one of the best suggestions to come along in a long time. Our political system has too long been…
- The Unintended Consequences of Supply Side Economics. by: bonalibro
November 6, 2011, 09:54
(I posted the following comment on Tom Friedman's Sunday column, Saturday at 8:45 p.m. EST when no comments were showing. At 8:00 a.m. and still no comments…
- On the Firing of General Peter Fuller by: bonalibro
November 5, 2011, 21:47
The firing of General Peter Fuller for remarks he made about Hamid Karzai, shows just how preposterous and deluded is our presence in Afghanistan. Having…
- The NY Times Would Not Take My Comment by: bonalibro
November 5, 2011, 05:56
I submitted the following comment to Paul Krugman's essay, Oligarchy, American Style well within the deadline. It was not accepted. Should I wonder why? Econom…
- Reuters denies me my first amendment rights. by: bonalibro
October 31, 2011, 20:12
Reuters has denied me commenting rights, because of comments such as this. The fact that OWS has not declared a set of demands is what I regard as its…
- Reply to Edward Stille by: bonalibro
October 24, 2011, 15:45
In reply to Edward Stille's New York Times editorial I wrote, "as long as everyone has a chance to compete," is the key phrase in this editorial. We can…
- Reply to Rawls on Wall Street by: bonalibro
October 23, 2011, 11:20
In reply to Steven Mazie's article, Rawls on Wall Street, what "we are the 99%" recognizes is not so much that we are all the same, but that we are all…
- Reply to: Occupy Wall Street Is Being Overhyped by: bonalibro
October 20, 2011, 12:10
In reply to is-occupy-wall-street-being-overhyped I would say that as a teenager who was more interested in traditional culture than the counter-culture, I…
- Bill Keller and Occupy Wall Street by: bonalibro
October 17, 2011, 14:34
Bill Keller's throwaway line dismissal of Occupy Wall Street in today's New York Times irritated me to no end. It's a sign that end times are upon us when…
- Comments on Paul Krugman's "Panic Among the Plutocrats" by: bonalibro
October 10, 2011, 22:16
The New York Times, this morning, would not accept my comment on Paul Krugman's column "Panic of the Plutocrats." When I submitted there were none. A couple…
- Labor and Literature « Commentary Magazine by: bonalibro
September 6, 2011, 21:29
Labor and Literature « Commentary Magazine. The neo-conservative humanist? D.G. Myers, writing in Commentary this week on the subject of Labor Day, says…
- One and Done? - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
September 4, 2011, 12:46
Yes, the President would have been wise to throw the game in 2008, but we would have had Hillary in his place. She was lick spittle to Bush his entire…
- Rod Lurie Remakes Peckinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs’ - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
September 3, 2011, 12:35
Rod Lurie Remakes Peckinpah’s ‘Straw Dogs’ - NYTimes.com. What is the purpose in revisiting the theme of Straw Dogs with a remake? I can think of only…
- Literature Brings the Physical Past to Life - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education by: bonalibro
August 22, 2011, 13:54
An excellent article, Scott. I can remember when I was a teenager, we had a family friend who was getting his doctorate in literature at Yale. We had a…
- Bachmann to Obama: Forget the Debt Ceiling, Lower the Debt, Christian News by: bonalibro
July 30, 2011, 23:18
Commentary on Michelle Bachman's blindness of recent history concerning taxation and deficit spending.
- The Weekend Interview with Bill Gates: Was the Billion Worth It? - WSJ.com by: bonalibro
July 25, 2011, 09:08
The Weekend Interview with Bill Gates: Was the Billion Worth It? - WSJ.com. In this recent article in the Wall Street Journal the writer inserted the…
- On "Wall Street’s Euthanasia of Industry" (Michael Hudson) by: bonalibro
July 20, 2011, 20:48
My take on Michael Hudson's views on Obama
- Mannerism in Literature and the Foxification of the Public Mind by: bonalibro
July 17, 2011, 11:40
An essay on cultural elitism and false populism.
- Stream of Consciousness, Stream of Pee by: bonalibro
July 10, 2011, 20:49
Why I cannot read stream of consciousness literature
- On Krugman: Corporate Cash Con by: bonalibro
July 4, 2011, 15:05
A rant on corporate responsibility.
- Commentary on The Smith Myth « Three Pound Brain by: bonalibro
June 10, 2011, 23:00
the holy trinity of fiction writing
- Comment on SF Signal: The Emptiness of 'Literary Fiction' and the Stereotyping of Genre Literature by: bonalibro
June 10, 2011, 21:42
A literary writer argues addresses the distinction between genres and argues for a new paradigm.
- Rule by Rentiers - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com by: bonalibro
June 10, 2011, 19:31
Rule by Rentiers - Readers' Comments - NYTimes.com. Le plus ce que ca change, le plus ce que ces le meme chose. The only thing that will set this country…
- Blowin’ in the Idiot Wind by: bonalibro
April 10, 2011, 00:53
The co-incidence of these two pieces struck me as particularly interesting for what they say about the boomer generation. Blowin’ in the Idiot Wind -…
- The Passing of a Fine Young Writer by: bonalibro
August 13, 2010, 13:51
I was shocked and saddened this evening to learn of the death of a fine young man I knew all too fleetingly on the net. I came across the work of Chris Al…
- Literary Fiction: Dead or Alive?
August 5, 2010, 07:50
Literary Agent Nathan Bransford, poses the the question, "Is Literary fiction losing its place in the culture? In my experience, literary fiction has always…
- Beattie's Book Blog by: bonalibro
August 1, 2010, 08:40
Beattie's Book Blog. On the Booker Prize long-listed book The Slap. "It's also unbelievably misogynistic, and I say that as someone who loves Flashman and…
- An Open Letter to John Mauldin by: bonalibro
- Category: Features (3)
- New Story Posted - The Fly Show by: bonalibro
April 4, 2012, 11:17
Dante had no circle in hell for aspiring creative hacks, but on Eddie's journey across scorched Earth, he encountered one after another of them... Thus begins…
- Post Financial Crisis Novel by: bonalibro
April 1, 2012, 21:13
Banana Republican Blues is a financial crisis novel concerning to travails and travels of a penniless former hedge fund maven, crossing the country in search…
- New Story Posted - Karma by: bonalibro
March 18, 2012, 13:29
Until Eddie Conover lost his stake, you’d never get a guy like him to believe claptrap like Karma. Watching his old portfolio charts crash as quick as…
- New Story Posted - The Fly Show by: bonalibro
- Category: On Craft (10)
- Hit Lit by: bonalibro
April 11, 2012, 22:52
I just finished reading James Hall's excellent little book on the craft of the novel, Hit Lit. He describes the many elements that bestselling novels share,…
- The Novelist Interviews the Blogger on Lars Iyer by: bonalibro
March 12, 2012, 08:37
You've written a lot about Lars Iyer. What attracted you to his work, and why did you respond to his manifesto? It's so hard to find worthwhile fiction…
- Death of Literature - Nude in Your Hot Tub, Facing the Abyss by: bonalibro
March 8, 2012, 21:50
Nude in your hot tub, facing the abyss (A literary manifesto after the end of Literature and Manifestos) | The White Review. Having written my reader's…
- What Happened to Standards of Excellence? by: bonalibro
January 16, 2012, 19:41
I'm all for raising standards of excellence, in ethics, politics, morals, education. Especially standards of excellence in writing, which is what I attempt to…
- Comments Please. by: bonalibro
January 13, 2012, 21:59
Here is a paragraph I recently wrote into my novel. What say you all? Is it a darling that needs to be killed, or kept? In the darkest part of his heart he…
- What is Meant by the Writer's Voice? by: bonalibro
July 31, 2011, 23:05
On voice in literary fiction.
- On Point of View by: bonalibro
May 28, 2011, 22:58
Believing that limited choices foster creativity, I decided to tell my entire tale from single character's point of view. Using the illeistic third, rather…
- More on "Mating." by: bonalibro
May 12, 2011, 12:29
Norman Rush's 'Mating' sends my BS detector soaring. A sure sign of amateurism in fiction is the info dump, in which the author loads the reader up with…
- Thoughts on Norman Rush's "Mating" by: bonalibro
May 2, 2011, 12:10
I've been reading Norman Rush's Mating, a national book award winner, and for a book that purports to be so learned, this passage in particular struck me as…
- The Great Canards of Creative Writing by: bonalibro
September 29, 2010, 07:27
Write What You Know Having read reams of online slush, I have labored through numerous manuscripts that give the lie to the principle of Write What You…
- Hit Lit by: bonalibro
- Category: The Writing Process (6)
In which an obscure novelist writes about the thinking behind his work.
- Foe by: bonalibro
April 5, 2013, 22:59
Cover of Foe: A Novel (King Penguin) J. M. Coetzee's novella, Foe, was suggested to me by an editor at Harper Collins, for reasons I still do not understand…
- Rewriting Again. by: bonalibro
March 31, 2012, 20:49
One of the issues that prompted my decision to rewrite BRB again was my short story, Karma, which used the characters from the novel. I adapted it for…
- The Death of Literature - Replying to Lars Iyer's Manifesto by: bonalibro
March 10, 2012, 11:12
Nude in your hot tub, facing the abyss (A literary manifesto after the end of Literature and Manifestos) | The White Review. Ever since I was a kid in high…
- Done. But is it Literature? by: bonalibro
January 15, 2012, 17:59
I feel like I've finally finished my novel, Banana Republican Blues. The aim was always to write a farce that would pass as Literature. I've been…
- Comments Please. by: bonalibro
January 13, 2012, 21:59
Here is a paragraph I recently wrote into my novel. What say you all? Is it a darling that needs to be killed, or kept? In the darkest part of his heart he…
- To Plot or Not to Plot | The Art & Craft of Writing Creatively by: bonalibro
June 6, 2011, 19:33
In response to the following post from Terri Giuliano Long, I've always felt I did my best work when either writing in a creative frenzy or writing to discover…
- Foe by: bonalibro
- Category: Announcements (4)
Generated by Table of Contents Creator v1.6.4.1
by Mark Beljaars