Books & the Arts

Chia-Chia Lin’s Haunting Immigrant Novel

Chia-Chia Lin’s Haunting Immigrant Novel Chia-Chia Lin’s Haunting Immigrant Novel

Set in a dreamlike Alaska, The Unpassing examines the hope and tragedy of a Taiwanese-American family. 

Jul 30, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Larissa Pham

Bruno Schulz’s Dream Worlds

Bruno Schulz’s Dream Worlds Bruno Schulz’s Dream Worlds

Born in turn-of-the-century Poland, Schulz lived both longer and better in his books than in real life. 

Jul 29, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld

The Migrant Crisis, Through the Eyes of Human Traffickers

The Migrant Crisis, Through the Eyes of Human Traffickers The Migrant Crisis, Through the Eyes of Human Traffickers

Emiliano Monge’s novel Among the Lost leads a reader through the hellish migrant trail from the perspective of its most amoral agents.

Jul 17, 2019 / Books & the Arts / John Washington

Solvitur Ambulando

Solvitur Ambulando Solvitur Ambulando

After the impossibility of the movement of any object through time was raised in light of the fact that, in time’s smallest unit, no motion can take place (which is to say, that an…

Jul 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Timothy Donnelly

Is ‘Veep’ Still Funny?

Is ‘Veep’ Still Funny? Is ‘Veep’ Still Funny?

The show’s vicious political satire defined a decade of comedy, but its last season lacked the same punch.

Jul 16, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

The Class Politics of the Civil War

The Class Politics of the Civil War The Class Politics of the Civil War

By naming a common enemy—the privileged class of slaveholders—the Republican Party and Union Army were able to build and then steer a coalition of Americans toward the systematic d...

Jul 15, 2019 / Books & the Arts / James Oakes

The Worlds of Kathleen Collins

The Worlds of Kathleen Collins The Worlds of Kathleen Collins

The quiet brilliance of her films and fiction was found in her ability to to place the interior and subjective in the context of the social and political.

Jul 15, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Farah Jasmine Griffin

The Long and Grim Road to ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’

The Long and Grim Road to ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’ The Long and Grim Road to ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’

Steven Luxenberg’s new book offers a vivid account of the events that led to the ruling.

Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / David Cole

Namwali Serpell’s Postcolonial Epic

Namwali Serpell’s Postcolonial Epic Namwali Serpell’s Postcolonial Epic

The Old Drift tells the multigenerational story of Zambia coming into being.

Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Nawal Arjini

After All

After All After All

Even when the garlic crop is good, something else is always dying— the peas withering in the afternoon we hoped for rain instead of watering, the tomatoes over-shaded. It should te…

Jul 2, 2019 / Books & the Arts / Anna V.Q. Ross

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