THE TRUE FICTIONS OF JOAN DIDION: REVISITING 'MIAMI' AND 'PLAY IT AS IT LAYS'

LITHUB - 8 JUNE 2015

On the 45th anniversary of Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays, Nathan Deuel reexamines that novel alongside her eponymous non-fiction portrait of Miami.

I first read Miami as a junior at Brown, in a class about the Cuban-American experience. I hated growing up in South Florida, feeling as I did that the place lacked history, or in any case I had never been given an adequate guide to make its history matter as much as the older, grander history up north or across the ocean.

Click to read more ...

What are you reading now?

THE MIAMI HERALD - 1 JUNE 2014

Having lived in Turkey, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, where our daughter was born, my wife and I are back in the U.S., relearning how to be Americans. What matters? Who are we? Leslie Jamison offers mixed answers in her dazzling essay book, The Empathy Exams. As a Miami native, I like the direction of a good South Florida tale; love is the secret in Roxane Gay's novel Untamed State, which is as haunting in Haiti as when the action moves to Miami-Dade County.

Click to read more ...

A Life-Saving Bond Between In-Laws

THE NEW YORK TIMES - 20 NOVEMBER 2012

For her 60th birthday, my mom cooked steak, but my dad had trouble chewing and five weeks later, at 59, he was dead, and she was facing a lonely house in Miami.

“Oh, Alfie,” she said. “How am I supposed to do this without you?” She had life insurance, considerable savings and the resources to live most anywhere in the world, which was both a blessing and curse.

Where?

Click to read more ...

Swimming Upstream: A Memoir in Pools

THE PARIS REVIEW - 25 OCTOBER 2012

Because I loved the water and because I moved all the time—in search of what, I wasn’t yet sure—I found that swimming laps was a good way to get somewhere without booking another ticket. Wherever we were, I’d search out an open lane, and sometimes I’d surprise myself, encountering the person who emerged on the other side. You could learn a lot with your eyes closed.

Click to read more ...