Lessons of Darkness: On Peter Maass Lessons of Darkness: On Peter Maass
For Peter Maass, oil is not a drug so much as a Pandora's box. Tap a well and base instincts spew.
Dec 16, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Mark Sorkin
Unidentified Unidentified
Hands touch--set off another round of deals and betrayals! I only hope I don't mistake whose lips and hands! Don't mix up all these break-ups and insomnias. When we let go, I'll try, my friend, to charge my memory! So you won't languish and expire like the others in my poems (the garbage heap of all my Casanovas!). So you won't be washed by rains for millennia, buried in my breast (mass grave for a thousand breasts!)... So you won't --you, my two-starred utter dark!-- end up one more corpse, gravemarker: Unknown. (Translated from the Russian byCatherine Ciepiela)
Dec 16, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Marina Tsvetaeva
The Revolution Will Be Televised The Revolution Will Be Televised
The oral history of America's radical tradition--performed by big Hollywood names like Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Danny Glover.
Dec 8, 2009 / Books & the Arts / YouTube
Containing Welles Containing Welles
Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air and Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces.
Dec 2, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Sometimes a Small Redemption: On Ludmilla Petrushevskaya Sometimes a Small Redemption: On Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
For Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, the fantastical is always found in the startling, dark and unfathomable episodes of daily life.
Dec 2, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz
Like Lives: On Lorrie Moore Like Lives: On Lorrie Moore
A 9/11 story modeled on Jane Eyre, A Gate at the Stairs is Lorrie Moore's most ambitious novel, and her slipperiest work to date.
Dec 2, 2009 / Books & the Arts / David Wallace-Wells
Angels to Radios: On Rainer Maria Rilke Angels to Radios: On Rainer Maria Rilke
The poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke fuses lament and praise, and mingles amazement about sheer existence with mystery and terror.
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
A Time Beyond Dreams: South Africa After Mandela A Time Beyond Dreams: South Africa After Mandela
Nelson Mandela was a patriarch, Thabo Mbeki a princeling. Jacob Zuma, South Africa's new president, is purely a politician.
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Rice
The New Inquisition The New Inquisition
Alarmist tracts about immigration in Europe are debates about Muslims--not with them.
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami
Novelist From Another Planet: On Horacio Castellanos Moya Novelist From Another Planet: On Horacio Castellanos Moya
Horacio Castellanos Moya has turned anxiety into an art form and put El Salvador on the literary map.
Nov 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer