Cathleen Schine

Mar 24, 2024 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Cathleen Schine

Upon delving into Cathleen Schine’s latest novel, Künstlers in Paradise, readers may find themselves in a curious state of reverse nostalgia — as in, thank God those early covid days are over! And yet, those vaccine-less months, when family members were unexpectedly bunking together for unforeseen stretches, turned out to be a cross-generational-storytelling gold mine. Künstlers in Paradise is a novel that unfolds under these precise silver-lining circumstances.

Sep 28, 2023 | nybooks.com | Cathleen Schine

One of my favorite novels is by Compton Mackenzie, a Scottish writer known today, if he is known at all, for his whimsically comic Whisky Galore (1947) and his ambitious early novel Sinister Street (1913). The one I love, however, is Extraordinary Women: Theme and Variations (1928), a satirical roman à clef about the sapphic adventures of the unorthodox and eccentric inhabitants of an island modeled after Capri during World War I.

Sep 7, 2023 | telegraphindia.com | Cathleen Schine |Henry Holt

“How would he ever capture this world, this clash of histories, in a script set in the future? The future, his own to make up, seemed barren and stilted compared to this vital past.” Julian Künstler’s thoughts echo the sentiments of the reader as she delves into the intergenerational trauma and the legacy of the Künstlers in Cathleen Schine’s twelfth novel. Julian Künstler is a lost case for his parents — as he wanders from one interest to another.

Mar 30, 2023 | nybooks.com | Cathleen Schine

Maxine Hong Kingston’s best work has a timeless quality, fresh, beautiful, horrifying, bursting with myth and fantasy and nagging reality.

Mar 27, 2023 | washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com | Cathleen Schine

Remember how disconcerting it was, just a few years ago, to watch a program or movie that depicted people blithely crowding into elevators, blowing out candles, shaking hands — all without even a whiff of concern regarding face-masking or hand-sanitizing or social-distancing?