Books & the Arts

A scene from “The Apprentice.”

The Apprenticeship of Donald Trump The Apprenticeship of Donald Trump

A new film examines Trump's formative years under the tutelage of Roy Cohn.

Oct 21, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David Klion

Telling the Amazon Labor Union’s Story

Telling the Amazon Labor Union’s Story Telling the Amazon Labor Union’s Story

Union, a new documentary about organizing at a Staten Island Amazon warehouse, grapples with what it means to tell an underdog story without a satisfying ending.

Oct 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Ella Fanger

Vintage illustration of a couple in bed adjusting their futuristic home automation system; screen print, 1955.

The Crisis in the Care Economy The Crisis in the Care Economy

How was care commodified? And what has that meant for an undervalued but increasingly important workforce.

Oct 16, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Maia Silber

German Jewish refugees looking through portholes aboard an ocean liner arriving in Antwerp, 1939.

What the Jewish History of Exile Means Now What the Jewish History of Exile Means Now

A recent book on Jewish identity before and after Zionism shows the limitations of a progressive critique that doesn't truly account for the experience of Palestinians.

Oct 14, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Eli Rudavsky

Anna Nordlander, “Sami Woman and her Child” (1870s).

A Swedish Poet Comes Face to Face With the Epic A Swedish Poet Comes Face to Face With the Epic

Sámi writer Linnea Axelsson’s AEdnan uses the ancient form to critique Sweden’s historical mistreatment of its indigenous people.

Oct 10, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Rebecca Ariel Porte

Alba de Céspedes’s Marriage Plot Polemic

Alba de Céspedes’s Marriage Plot Polemic Alba de Céspedes’s Marriage Plot Polemic

In the Cuban-Italian novelist’s Her Side of the Story, she confronts the falsity of romantic love.

Oct 9, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Rachel Vorona Cote

A photograph of Sylvia Plath on her grave at St Thomas A. Beckett churchyard, Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, 2011.

The Silencing of Sylvia Plath The Silencing of Sylvia Plath

In Emily Van Duyne’s Loving Sylvia Plath she asks if we can fully understand the poet’s work without understanding her abusive marriage to Ted Hughes.

Oct 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lynne Feeley

Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina and Laurence Fishburne as Fundi Romaine in “Megalopolis”.

The Empty Promise of “Megalopolis” The Empty Promise of “Megalopolis”

Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited magnum opus is a flop.

Oct 7, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

Stefan Bakałowicz's “Roman poet Catullus reading to his friends” (1885).

The Age-Old Struggle of Translating Catullus The Age-Old Struggle of Translating Catullus

A crisp new rendering of the Roman poet’s poems underlines how difficult it is to fully relate all his complexities and contradictions.

Oct 3, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Nicolas Liney

Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento’s Endless Reinventions

Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento’s Endless Reinventions Esperanza Spalding and Milton Nascimento’s Endless Reinventions

In a collaborative work, the two artists find a fusion of old and new that charts a path forward for jazz and pop’s future.

Oct 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David Hajdu

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