Books & the Arts

A Tough Flower Girl: On Norman Maclean A Tough Flower Girl: On Norman Maclean

In Norman Maclean's stories, tragedy comes garlanded in a prose style nearly unsurpassed for its bright flashes of remembrance, its whispers out of time.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Philip Connors

Back Talk: Elaine Showalter Back Talk: Elaine Showalter

A conversation with the author of A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood

Sallow, Queer, Sagacious: Lincoln Through the Ages Sallow, Queer, Sagacious: Lincoln Through the Ages

A new anthology of essays captures the many faces of Lincoln over the decades.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Brenda Wineapple

Philadelphia Rising Philadelphia Rising

The mayor's budget plan would close libraries. The people say, Think again.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Robert S. Eshelman

‘Nation’ Note ‘Nation’ Note

Arthur C. Danto steps down as art critic of The Nation but continues as a contributing editor.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / The Editors

Longing of the Accords Longing of the Accords

"life's white machine"    Geoffrey G. O'Brien and Jeff Clark   We're all tenants, of one kind or another: lodgers, proprietors, houseguests. So what matters is what matters for most of us. We shrink in silken alarm in the corridor--someone is coming? But boa-clad ushers receive us. We were told we were on message, were the subject, or topic. In fact it made a little difference   but not enough to disturb or quiet us. Concluding, perhaps rightly, we were of the one or other sort, you signed off. It was OK to take everything, though not to want it.

Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / John Ashbery

The Mutual Human Concern The Mutual Human Concern

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata, Steve McQueen's Hunger, Andrzej Wajda's Katyn.

Mar 5, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans

The Eye That Collects: On Walker Evans The Eye That Collects: On Walker Evans

Walker Evans's collection of picture postcards, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is an artistic project in its own right.

Mar 5, 2009 / Books & the Arts / J. Gabriel Boylan

Ceaselessly Opportuning: On Barbara Guest Ceaselessly Opportuning: On Barbara Guest

Barbara Guest's Collected Poems showcase her knack for catching sight of time in its act of escaping one's grasp.

Mar 5, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky

A Nazi Zelig: Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones A Nazi Zelig: Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones

The Kindly Ones, Jonathan Littell's fictive memoir of a Nazi SS officer, is intentionally sickening and an unquestionably brilliant success.

Mar 5, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn

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