Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

2 months ago | electricliterature.com | Jo Lou |Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

The omniscient, intrusive narrative voice was common to many novels dating to and before the early 1900s: the sweeping perspective of a narrator who functions almost as a god, able to show us anything—and who often interrupts the story at hand to make wry comments at the expense of the characters and the society in which they function.

2 months ago | shelf-awareness.com | Olivia Wolfgang-Smith |Kira Jane Buxton |Ali Smith |Suzanne Nelson

One theme that stands out among many of today's excellent reading recommendations deals with the indelible bonds people form with each other and the places they love. In the poignant and gorgeous graphic memoir This Beautiful, Ridiculous City, Kay Sohini details her fixation on New York City and the allure it held for her, even during her youth in Calcutta.

Jun 22, 2023 | themillions.com | Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

To a Happier Year: On E.M. Forster and ‘Maurice’ Recently, my partner and I and a few friends gathered with somewhat ridiculous ceremony for a meeting of our book club devoted to E.M. Forster’s queer classic Maurice. That week, we were throwing a dinner party and screening the 1987 Merchant Ivory film adaptation starring James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves.

Jun 22, 2023 | scribd.com | Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

Recently, my partner and I and a few friends gathered with somewhat ridiculous ceremony for a meeting of our book club devoted to E.M. Forster’s queer classic Maurice. That week, we were throwing a dinner party and screening the 1987 Merchant Ivory film adaptation starring James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves. The whole party was animated by that high-concept, low-ambition, cockeyed wholesome glee that I associate (tellingly) with both adolescence and graduate school.

May 18, 2023 | them.us | Ilana Masad |Olivia Wolfgang-Smith |Samuel R. Delaney |Alan Hollinghurst

The novel then moves backwards, first to 1944 and then to 1941, and we get to see exactly how these people have become entangled in one another’s lives, what loves they’ve lost and gained, and how vital women became to the workforce during WWII.