The Idea of Houses The Idea of Houses
I sold my earrings at the gold store to buy a silver ring in the market. I swapped that for old ink and a black notebook. This was before I forgot my pages on the seat of a train t…
Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal
Raising a Glass With an Arab Nationalist Raising a Glass With an Arab Nationalist
The pianist was still droopy-eyed, her face as dark as the keys they left her to press for half a century, though she must have been white as an angel when they first strung her up…
Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal
The Window The Window
You can identify the one who broke apart, the one whose spine they managed to straighten, whose neck they stuck back on his shoulders. From where you stand, drinking coffeee and wa…
Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal
Nothing Remains Unchanged but the Clouds Nothing Remains Unchanged but the Clouds
With his worries about the gigantic power of technology and the minuscule moral illumination it can afford, Walter Benjamin remains our contemporary.
Nov 18, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Neima Jahromi
Michael Walzer, Revolutionologist Michael Walzer, Revolutionologist
The political theorist’s new book on national liberation can’t answer one key question: Why have those words become obsolete?
Nov 18, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney
A Poet Who Believed in Nothing As in Love A Poet Who Believed in Nothing As in Love
After first writing poetry to impress and entertain his wealthy parents’ guests, cosmopolitan James Merrill went cosmic.
Nov 17, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
‘All You Want Is Money! All I Want Is Revolution!’ ‘All You Want Is Money! All I Want Is Revolution!’
Before the Tiananmen Square massacre, everyone loved China; now everyone loves the renminbi.
Nov 17, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Liao Yiwu
Why Does Ta-Nehisi Coates Say Less Than He Knows? Why Does Ta-Nehisi Coates Say Less Than He Knows?
The journalist’s best-selling memoir offers eloquent testimony to the vulnerability of black life, but it surrenders too much to despair.
Nov 15, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jesse McCarthy
The Beauty and the Costs of Extreme Altruism The Beauty and the Costs of Extreme Altruism
What if you were so troubled by suffering and inequality that you changed your life entirely?
Nov 5, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn
Not the Word, but the Thing Itself Not the Word, but the Thing Itself
With each successive work, Clarice Lispector polished her prose until it shimmered with a taut irregularity.
Nov 5, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ava Kofman