Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez's most recent book is Risky Business, a selection of essays, many of which first appeared in these pages. (May 2008)
From the Review
May 29, 2008: On the Edge
A Treatise of Civil Power by Geoffrey Hill
November 22, 2007: The Trouble with Happiness
Tomorrow by Graham Swift
September 27, 2007: S & M at the Poles
Scott of the Antarctic: A Life of Courage and Tragedy by David Crane
The Frozen Ship: The Histories and Tales of Polar Exploration by Sarah Moss
The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Hero of the Great Age of Polar Exploration by Simon Nasht
July 19, 2007: It Happened One Night
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
August 10, 2006: The Man Who Rowed Away
Rapids by Tim Parks
Talking About It by Tim Parks
March 23, 2006: The Best and the Brightest
One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, the World's Greatest Poker Player by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson, with a foreword by Mike Sexton
The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time by Michael Craig
February 10, 2005: Life Studies
Runaway by Alice Munro
December 16, 2004: A Double Bind
The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000 by Todd M. Endelman
A Double Thread: Growing Up English and Jewish in London by John Gross
April 8, 2004: Living Dangerously
Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life by Caroline Moorehead
December 18, 2003: Ted Hughes & Translation (letter)
May 15, 2003: Making It New
The Short Sharp Life of T.E. Hulme by Robert Ferguson
Wilfred Owen by Dominic Hibberd
May 9, 2002: A Light Black World
The Darkness and the Light by Anthony Hecht
August 9, 2001: Ice Capades
Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Downright Lunacy by Fergus Fleming
Antarctica: Firsthand Accounts of Exploration and Endurance edited by Charles Neider
Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole by Dr. Jerri Nielsen
Let Heroes Speak: Antarctic Explorers by Michael H. Rosove
Great Exploration Hoaxes by David Roberts
The Mountains of My Life by Walter Bonatti
In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic by Valerian Albanov
The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk by Jennifer Niven
April 12, 2001: The Prodigal Prodigy
Learning Human: Selected Poems Les Murray
May 11, 2000: Visions of Light
Tiepolo's Hound by Derek Walcott
March 9, 2000: High Rollers
Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss by Frederick Barthelme, by Steven Barthelme
September 24, 1998: Memento Mori
The American Way of Death Revisited by Jessica Mitford
Grave Matters: A Lively History of Death Around the World by Nigel Barley
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
January 15, 1998: High Flier
Burning the Days: Recollection by James Salter
June 26, 1997: A Magnificent Failure
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
May 23, 1996: New Poet in Town
Ants on the Melon by Virginia Hamilton Adair
January 11, 1996: Learning from Las Vegas
The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America's Gambling Explosion by Robert Goodman
The Black Book and the Mob: The Untold Story of the Control of Nevada's Casinos by Ronald A. Farrell, by Carole Case
Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas by Nicholas Pileggi
Casino a film directed by Martin Scorsese, screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi, by Martin Scorsese
Running Scared: The Life and Treacherous Times of Las Vegas Casino King Steve Wynn by John L. Smith
February 2, 1995: Lonely Passion
A Passion for Wings by Robert Wohl
Saint-Exupéry: A Biography by Stacy Schiff
October 10, 1991: Down & Out in Paris & London
Jean Rhys: Life and Work by Carole Angier
December 7, 1989: Sylvia Plath's Biographers (letter)
October 26, 1989: Sylvia Plath: An Exchange
September 28, 1989: A Poet and Her Myths
Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath by Anne Stevenson
July 21, 1988: A Poet's Reply (letter)
June 2, 1988: Witness
Czeslaw Milosz: The Collected Poems, 1931–1987
April 10, 1986: Among the Freaks
Children of Light by Robert Stone
July 18, 1985: Noble Poet
Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by John Carpenter, by Bogdana Carpenter
Barbarian in the Garden by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Michael March, by Jaroslaw Anders
Selected Poems by Zbigniew Herbert, translated by Czeslaw Milosz, by Peter Dale Scott
April 11, 1985: Working in the Dark
The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth
God Knows by Joseph Heller
Tough Guys Don't Dance by Norman Mailer
November 10, 1983: Games People Play
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
The Cannibal Galaxy by Cynthia Ozick
May 13, 1982: Flushed with Ideas
Levitation: Five Fictions by Cynthia Ozick
Waking by Eva Figes
February 4, 1982: Enemies Within
The Age of Wonders by Aharon Appelfeld, translated by Dalya Bilu
November 19, 1981: Past, Present, & Future
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The Flute Player by D.M. Thomas
The Country by David Plante
May 15, 1980: Kesh & Loaning (letter)
March 6, 1980: A Fine Way With the Language
Field Work by Seamus Heaney
October 12, 1967: Fiedler Defense Fund (letter)
November 11, 1965: East Is East
Petrovka 38 by Julian Semyonov, translated by Michael Scammel
Island of Salvation by Wlodzimierz Odojewski, translated by David Welsh
A Sitter for a Satyr by George Andrzeyevski, translated by Celina Wieniewska
Ward 7 by Valeriy Tarsis, translated by Katya Brown
The Ice Age by Tamas Acezl
Postwar Polish Poetry selected and translated by Czeslaw Milosz
December 31, 1964: Spellbound
Film: The Creative Process by John Howard Lawson
Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear by John Russell Taylor
Behind the Screen by Kenneth Macgowan
September 24, 1964: Bread and Kvass
For the Good of the Cause by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
We Never Make Mistakes by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
July 30, 1964: Excelsior!
Americans on Everest by James Ramsey Ullman
Four Against Everest by Woodrow Wilson Sayre
June 11, 1964: Mortal Longings
The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
Report on Bruno by Joseph Breitbach
October 31, 1963: Keats
John Keats by Walter Jackson Bate
John Keats: The Making of a Poet by Aileen Ward
From New York Review Books
 | An African in Greenland "Kpomassie is indisputably a man of extraordinary charm; he is also sharp and perceptive and honest—unencumbered by a sense of obligation to his hosts that might have prevented him from telling us what they are really like."— Katherine Bouton, The Nation |
Books by Al Alvarez
New and Selected Poems (2002)
Poker: Bets, Bluffs, and Bad Beats (2000)
Where Did It All Go Right? (1999)
Night: Night Life, Night Language, Sleep and Dreams (1995)
The Faber Book of Modern European Poetry (1992)
Day of Atonement (1991)
Feeding the Rat (1989)
Rainforest (1988)
Offshore: A North Sea Journey (1986)
The Biggest Game in Town (1983)
Life After Marriage: Love in an Age of Divorce (1982)
Autumn to Autumn and Selected Poems 1953-76 (1978)
Hunt (1978)
Hers (1974)
Samuel Beckett (1973)
The Savage God: A Study of Suicide (1971)
Apparition (1971)
Under Pressure: The Writer in Society (1965)
The New Poetry (1962)
The School of Donne (1961)
Stewards of Excellence; Studies in Modern English and American Poets (1958)