Tested Tested
Diane Ravitch’s latest call-to-arms against the privatization of public schools.
Jan 29, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Joseph Featherstone
Eurydice Eurydice
It’s more like the sound a doe makes when the arrowhead replaces the day with an answer to the rib’s hollowed hum. We saw it coming but kept walking through the hole in the garden. Because the leaves were bright green & the fire only a pink brushstroke in the distance. It’s not about the light—but how dark it makes you depending on where you stand. Depending on where you stand his name can appear like moonlight shredded in a dead dog’s fur. His name changed when touched by gravity. Gravity breaking our kneecaps just to show us the sky. We kept saying Yes— even with all those birds. Who would believe us now? My voice cracking like bones inside the radio. Silly me. I thought love was real & the body imaginary. But here we are—standing in the cold field, him calling for the girl. The girl beside him. Frosted grass snapping beneath her hooves.
Jan 28, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Ocean Vuong
Pete Seeger’s Biggest Day Pete Seeger’s Biggest Day
In a life of memorable moments, one of the most important was the day Seeger sang “Give Peace a Chance” with half a million people.
Jan 28, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Jon Wiener
Pete Seeger Brought the World Together Pete Seeger Brought the World Together
Pete’s fingers can strum no longer, but, thanks to him, people around the world can have many “singing tomorrows.”
Jan 28, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Peter Dreier
Nothing Much Nothing Much
Eric with the latest reviews.
Jan 27, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman
The Two Faces of Empire The Two Faces of Empire
The main characters in Melville’s Moby-Dick and Benito Cereno represent the dark, corrupting branches of American imperialism.
Jan 27, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Greg Grandin
This Week in ‘Nation’ History: ‘Dr. Strangelove’ as ‘a Cold Blade of Scorn Against the Spectator’s Throat’ This Week in ‘Nation’ History: ‘Dr. Strangelove’ as ‘a Cold Blade of Scorn Against the Spectator’s Throat’
Robert Hatch’s conflicted review of Stanley Kubrick’s great satire, released fifty years ago this week.
Jan 25, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Katrina vanden Heuvel
Q&A: Gary Shteyngart Q&A: Gary Shteyngart
Gary Shteyngart wrote the award-winning novels The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story. Now he's written a memoir called Little Failure. This interview has been edited and condensed. JW: You spent your first seven years in the Soviet Union—what was your 7-year-old understanding of communism, of Lenin himself? GS: Let’s start with Lenin. One of the biggest statues of Lenin was in Leningrad right outside our window. I loved Lenin so much that I would wake up every morning and hug his pedestal. When I was 5, I wrote a book called Lenin and His Magical Goose, in which Lenin and a talking goose conquer Finland and make it a socialist country. I very much wanted to become a soldier in the Red Army, or a cosmonaut. I wanted to try to launch an attack against the United States and make it safe for socialism. JW: You and your family left Russia in 1979. How did you get to leave? GS: Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev created a Jews-for-grain deal. American Jews were agitating for Soviet Jews to be able to leave Russia, and at the same time the Soviet Union had a horrible wheat harvest. So grain sailed out of America and Jews sailed out of Russia. I was worth 300 loaves of bread or something. JW: There’s a turning point in your book, when your father tells you as you are leaving, “Everything was a lie.” What did you think about that? GS: I was heartbroken. That’s a tough sell for a kid: goodbye Lenin, hello Reagan. JW: What surprised you about the US when you arrived? GS: Everything surprised me. There was nothing that was recognizable. When we landed at Pan Am terminal at JFK, it looked like a flying saucer. I saw a Chevrolet Corvette; I thought it was a plane, ready to take off. JW: Your father sent you to Hebrew school in Queens. Were you welcomed by the other Jewish kids as a refugee from an anti-Semitic country? GS: Remember, these were the days of Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech. The kids had seen all those movies—Red Dawn and Red Gerbil and Red Hamster—and being Russian was the worst thing you could be. I tried to convince them I was born in East Berlin. When you’re trying to convince Jewish kids that you’re German, you know you’re in deep trouble. JW: I understand you got a subscription to National Review when you were 11. How did that happen? GS: That’s so embarrassing. I remember Margaret Thatcher was always on the cover. Also at age 11 a card came in the mail with my name on it, along with an eagle and two rifles. It was my membership card in the National Rifle Association. JW: What was your path away from loving Ronald Reagan and reading National Review? GS: I volunteered for the George H.W. Bush campaign, and there was a victory party at the Marriott in Times Square. I walked in wearing my one polyester suit, feeling I was finally going to meet the girl of my dreams. I saw two Republican girls wearing the pearls and stuff, and they asked me to come over. I thought, this is it! And they asked me for a rum and Coke. They thought I was a waiter. I realized that this dark-skinned immigrant in the polyester suit is probably not GOP material. Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50! JW: Your parents loved America, but they were always afraid they would lose their jobs. Did it ever occur to them that the problem might be with America and not with them? GS: No. America for them was and is a country that can do no wrong. They are still very Republican, and they love Fox News. I sort of understand their point of view, because it was forged in opposition to the system in which they grew up. JW: You’ve lived in the US since you were 7—for the last 34 years. Is Russia still part of your life? GS: It is. I’ve returned to Russia almost every year for the last fifteen years. It’s important for my writing. It’s important for my understanding of who my parents are and, by extension, who I am. Every trip back begins with a visit to that Lenin statue. Read Next: Aaron Thier on Super Sad True Love Story.
Jan 22, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Jon Wiener
Permission to Fail Permission to Fail
MFAs aren’t a problem: it’s artists being content with what they know.
Jan 22, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Law of Life, and Light Law of Life, and Light
A new history of Chile is a wrestling match between fatalism and optimism.
Jan 22, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Lorna Scott Fox