Books and Ideas

Hostile Obituary for Derrida Hostile Obituary for Derrida

On October 10, the New York Times published a front-page obituary for French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Ross Benjamin

The Interpreters of Maladies The Interpreters of Maladies

Derrida was often misunderstood, but rarely worse than in his New York Times obituary. Ross Benjamin explains, in a web-only feature.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Adam Shatz

Days of Rage Days of Rage

On November 4, 1979, a few months after the collapse of the Iranian monarchy and the inauguration of Iran's Islamic Republic, a group of college students calling themselves the M...

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Reza Aslan

Of Love and Other Demons Of Love and Other Demons

The first chapter of Too Brief a Treat: The Letters of Truman Capote follows our hero's adventures from 1936 through 1948, a particularly heady period of his life.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Nathaniel Rich

Little Big Man Little Big Man

No musical life has been told more often than Wagner's. Biographies have wafted incense around him, or been incensed by him.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Paul Griffiths

The Shock of the Old The Shock of the Old

These remarks introduced a centennial tribute to Isaac Bashevis Singer in October at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Morris Dickstein

The Good Girl The Good Girl

In the past few decades, Russell Banks has established himself as one of America's most important living writers, one of a handful with the daring and the talent to plumb our his...

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Deborah Scroggins

Imitation of Life Imitation of Life

To return to Chekhov in this cultural moment makes you feel as if you were experiencing spring in Russia.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Lee Siegel

Patriot Acts Patriot Acts

In September 1950, four months into the Korean War, Congress passed the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA), known as the McCarran Act, after its sponsor, the Nevada Democratic...

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Mike Marqusee

Lost in America Lost in America

In no literature in the world has the immigrant novel been more varied, more original, more persistent than in ours--and this for the most obvious of reasons.

Nov 24, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick

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