Jeanne-Marie Jackson

Oct 1, 2024 | hopkinsreview.com | Dora Malech |Jeanne-Marie Jackson

There is an Afrikaans word, rigtingbefok, that literally means “directionally fucked.” “Disoriented” could almost work as an alternate translation, but captures none of the guttural, violent materiality of a language shaped by sin in farmers’ mouths. Rigtingbefok is not often used in polite company, as which S. J. Naudé, arguably South Africa’s most cultivated prose stylist, certainly qualifies.

Jan 30, 2024 | chronicle.com | Jeanne-Marie Jackson

Jonathan Kramnick’s book Criticism and Truth is more modest than its title suggests. Essentially an apologia for the nuts-and-bolts work of literary studies, the word that best describes it isn’t “ambitious” — although it is that — but “dignified.” At the level of the sentence and the whole, Kramnick knows when to stop talking.