Hervé Guibert’s Last Laugh Hervé Guibert’s Last Laugh
His last novel, My Manservant and Me, was a bracing satire of illness, aging, and the representation of gay life in literature.
Oct 6, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Shiv Kotecha
How the Police Became an Occupying Army How the Police Became an Occupying Army
Riotsville, U.S.A. documents the origins and rise of what the activist George Jackson called the “the corporate-military-police complex.”
Oct 5, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Yasmina Price
Olga Tokarczuk’s Panoramic Novel of Jewish Poland Olga Tokarczuk’s Panoramic Novel of Jewish Poland
A work defined by its narrative elasticity, The Books of Jacob tells the story of a false messiah not through his eyes but through the vibrant and now lost world around him.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
The Mixtapes of Hua Hsu The Mixtapes of Hua Hsu
In his new memoir, Stay True, the New Yorker critic offers a coming-of-age story that doubles as a tale about friendship, music, and the politics of knowing oneself.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Summer Kim Lee
I.B. Singer’s Language of Everyday Life I.B. Singer’s Language of Everyday Life
By choosing to write in Yiddish rather than Hebrew, the young Singer declared his allegiance to the here and now rather than a biblical past or a Zionist future.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Adam Kirsch
Pankaj Mishra’s Novel of Intellectuals and Influencers Pankaj Mishra’s Novel of Intellectuals and Influencers
Mishra’s first work of fiction in over a decade examines how ideas circulate in an age of social media and “ideas festivals.”
Oct 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Wilson
Thulani Davis’s Freedom Visions Thulani Davis’s Freedom Visions
Her new history of the Civil War and Reconstruction examines the ways in which Black Americans formed networks of self-reliance in their pursuit of emancipation.
Oct 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques
Has Labor Become More or Less Powerful Over the Last Two Decades? Has Labor Become More or Less Powerful Over the Last Two Decades?
Neither Aaron Benanav’s Automation and the Future of Work nor Sarah Jaffe’s Work Won’t Love You Back was written with the pandemic in mind but together they serve as an indispensab...
Oct 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Alyssa Battistoni
The Left Needs to Take Back the Constitution The Left Needs to Take Back the Constitution
A new book argues that the Constitution is best understood as a document calling for the unashamed struggle for equality.
Sep 29, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jay Swanson
The Real Butt of Nathan Fielder’s Joke The Real Butt of Nathan Fielder’s Joke
His awkward social comedies always leave you wondering: Whom should you be laughing at?
Sep 29, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi