Stuff About Books and Literature

Michael Blumenthal - Photo with permission from - M. Blumenthal Michael Blumenthal, educator and psychoanalyst, award winning poet and writer, was born in New Jersey and raised in the Washington Heights neighbourhood of Manhattan.  Michael graduated from Cornell Law School but after practising law for a few months realised the legal world was not exactly for him. While moving from one job to another, Michael concentrated his energy on his passion for writing poetry. His efforts paid off. In 1980, his book of poems, Sympathetic Magic , was published and won the 'Water Mark Poets of North America First Book Prize'. After his first collection of poems reached the bookshelves, Michael was offered a teaching job at Harvard and stayed there for eight years as a lecturer in poetry and finally as director of the Creative Writing program. His second and third books of poems, Days We Would Rather Know and Against Romance were first published by Penguin in 1984 and 1987 respectively and...

Your Table is Waiting - Photo by Lesley Lanir Somerset Maugham There are difficult occasions in life which seem ludicrous when viewed from a different perspective, especially with the added contortions of time. Such an event provides the framework for Somerset Maugham’s short story ‘The Luncheon.' Accompanying the narrator during his recollection of  lunch time occasion, the reader meets a young, naive writer faced with a luncheon meeting that if not handled carefully may cost him more than his month’s allowance. His ordeal becomes a critical yet humorous expose of the conventions of high society and Maugham’s deliberate use of contrasting flat characters further intensifies the mockery. Each character is a social stereotype; their polarity serves to emphasise the gaps in society providing the perfect dramatic irony to enhances the humour and reinforce the theme. Lunch - Photo by Lesley Lanir Read Somerset Maugham’s 'The Luncheon' and find out why a simple meeting exposes t...