reviews

The Last of Twelve? Author:  Mark Riebling Why was he silent?  Often referred to as “Hitler’s Pope,” Pius XII has frequently been the subject of criticism for his failure to publicly denounce Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party during World War II despite having full knowledge of the many atrocities committed by the Fuhrer and his followers.  The pope’s decision to maintain a strict public position of neutrality has often been viewed as just one more piece of evidence demonstrating the moral decline of the Catholic Church during the 20th century.  But maybe there’s more to the story. Relying on [...]

Why Hemmingway's Great Classic Feels So Empty Author: Ernest Hemmingway Unfolding against the bleak landscape of the Italian front in World War I, Hemmingway’s semi-biographical novel follows American Lieutenant (“Tenente”) Frederic Henry who serves as an ambulance driver in the Italian army. Carousing from one whore-house to the next, the Tenente regrets the very blandness of his own existence and seems so far jaded by it that he legitimately has no interest in whether he survives the war. Whether a product of his times, a dissolute soul overcome by the war, or a victim of personal tragedy, we meet the [...]