Tuesday's Literary Briefing

Watch Your Step

The Gulf may have some oil-soaked oysters, but here in South Carolina, they are still healthy. So healthy in fact that one sliced the hell out of our foot this past weekend. We’ve never seen such neon blood. This incident was followed by an unfortunate step on a broken plank that sent us through the dock. We must say that the board speared into the mud below in spectacular fashion. But while we were gallivanting on an island, people were writing. Today, we have a Czech detective novel, Case Closed. Wars require soldiers, but they require journalists as well. New Criterion reviews Michael Slater’s look into the Dickensian world. Soccer fever is at its pitch, and The Washington Post has five essential World Cup books. And the drama in Emily Dickinson’s life was not that of the theatre. Excuse us while tend to our wounds. – Andrew Geer