Books & the Arts

Rachel Kushner’s  Brilliant Avant-Garde Spy Thriller

Rachel Kushner’s Brilliant Avant-Garde Spy Thriller Rachel Kushner’s Brilliant Avant-Garde Spy Thriller

In Creation Lake, Kushner transforms the genre's familiar plot twists and turns into a study of the many fictions we tell one another.

Aug 27, 2024 / Nicolás Medina Mora

Buffy (Darren Robinson) of the Fat Boys in Chicago, 1985.

Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop

An elegiac retelling of rap's origins, Hip-Hop Is History also ends with a sense of hope.

Aug 27, 2024 / Bijan Stephen

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Having gnawed away at literary and political conventions from within their hallowed forms, Senna has now set her eyes on Hollywood.

Aug 27, 2024 / Lovia Gyarkye

New York Stock Exchange, 1895.

The Surprising Origins and Politics of Equality The Surprising Origins and Politics of Equality

A series of new books unearth the long history of egalitarian politics. They also ask whether equality, instead of another political ideal, should be at the center of our politics...

Aug 27, 2024 / Samuel Moyn

Then–US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifying before the Senate Budget Committee in 2009.

The Intractable Puzzle of Growth The Intractable Puzzle of Growth

For more than a century, the key measure of a healthy economy has been its capacity to grow and yet if production and consumption continues to expand at their current rate we migh...

Aug 26, 2024 / Benjamin Kunkel

Saddam Hussein and Mulla Mustafa al-Barzani, 1970.

The “Cascade of Errors” That Led to America’s War on Terror The “Cascade of Errors” That Led to America’s War on Terror

Steve Coll’s new book looks at the hubris and delusions of American foreign-policy makers and counterparts in the Middle East that led to a war that still haunts the globe.

Aug 22, 2024 / Lyle Jeremy Rubin

Guy Davenport, 1997.

Guy Davenport—the Last High Modernist Guy Davenport—the Last High Modernist

In the essays collected in Geography of the Imagination, one can glimpse the inner workings of the mind of a 20th-century literary genius.

Aug 21, 2024 / David Schurman Wallace

Percival Everett’s Great American Novel

Percival Everett’s Great American Novel Percival Everett’s Great American Novel

In his new novel James, Everett reminds us of the thorny absurdity that is U.S. history.

Aug 19, 2024 / Omari Weekes

Detail of Bundi School, 17th century, National Museum, New Delhi, India.

A Paean to Nonhuman Life A Paean to Nonhuman Life

In Lydia Millet’s We Loved It All, she compels readers to decenter human experience in the stories we tell about the natural world.

Aug 14, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Julia Case-Levine

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