George Santos George Santos
George Santos invented an alternate life, With chutzpah we’ve seen only rarely. Mendacity in all his statements was rife. He beat Trump in lying, though barely.
Jan 10, 2023 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Hannah Arendt Was Really a Prophet Against Conformity Hannah Arendt Was Really a Prophet Against Conformity
To the question of how totalitarian methods could ever draw the compliance of free citizens, she replied: through the enchantment of success.
Jan 9, 2023 / Column / David Bromwich
The Fragile and Complex Worlds of George Saunders The Fragile and Complex Worlds of George Saunders
In his short fiction, Saunders reminds us that when it comes to ethical dilemmas there are often no clean ways out.
Jan 9, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Erin Somers
Will Alexander’s Epics of the Surreal Will Alexander’s Epics of the Surreal
As one critic put it, his poetry conjured up a world built by “an ecstatic surrealist on imaginal hyperdrive.”
Jan 5, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Aditya Bahl
Lynne Tillman Breaks the Rules Lynne Tillman Breaks the Rules
Mothercare, a fascinating and sometimes fraught experiment with memoir, finds the author testing the limits of personal writing.
Jan 4, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Michele Moses
Has the United States Ever Been a Democracy? Has the United States Ever Been a Democracy?
Blending history, political theory, and commentary on current events, Jedediah Purdy's new book examines how that the United States continues to fail to qualify as a system defined...
Jan 3, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Sophia Rosenfeld
The Butler Didn’t Do It! On Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion” The Butler Didn’t Do It! On Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion”
While Knives Out was a brilliant inversion of the class politics of an Agatha Christie whodunit, the sequel wants to have it both ways.
Dec 29, 2022 / Ethan Iverson
The Faith of Halldór Laxness The Faith of Halldór Laxness
Salka Valka, the first novel written after the Nobel Prize winner’s apparent loss of faith, betrays an ongoing religious aesthetic.
Dec 28, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Jack Hanson
Letters From the January 9/16, 2023, Issue Letters From the January 9/16, 2023, Issue
Here we go again… Unintended consequences… An American daughter… Dangerous policies…
Dec 27, 2022 / Our Readers
Exit Trump? Exit Trump?
Some Washington types say that Trump’s here for good; He’ll handle those setbacks just fine. But some say they’re certain that soon he may go, And not with a bang but a whine.
Dec 27, 2022 / Column / Calvin Trillin