Infinite Jest Infinite Jest
Dave Eggers's memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, has been a bit too loudly hyped as an ironic tearjerker, and a media juggernaut has branded its author a tragic h...
Mar 2, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Elise Harris
Stations of the Cross Stations of the Cross
Perhaps no contemporary writer has more singlemindedly mined a single vein of literary ore than E.L. Doctorow has New York City, especially the New York of the past.
Feb 23, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Melvin Jules Bukiet
Dade Ain’t Disney Dade Ain’t Disney
Tired of all the stuff about the Cuban kid who is rapidly being turned into the most pampered brat in the world? The press can be blamed, of course.
Feb 16, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Robert Sherrill
Salvation in South Africa Salvation in South Africa
Blessed with a great subject, afflicted with it too, J.M. Coetzee has remade its meanings in the light of metaphor often no further from us than our own bodies.
Feb 16, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Joseph McElroy
Business Creates Eco-Side! Business Creates Eco-Side!
Natural Capitalism is so informative and provocative--and so unfashionably optimistic about the future of the planet--that I wonder why everyone in public life is not reading it ...
Feb 10, 2000 / Books & the Arts / William Greider
Naipaul Writes Home Naipaul Writes Home
Many years ago, when I was about the age that V.S. Naipaul was when he departed Trinidad for England, I would borrow books by him from the library of an erstwhile colonial club i...
Feb 10, 2000 / Books & the Arts / S. Shankar
Bobby, He Hardly Knew Ye Bobby, He Hardly Knew Ye
Robert Scheer was the last journalist to interview Robert Kennedy.
Feb 3, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Robert Scheer
Rebel Yell Rebel Yell
The recent march in South Carolina, demanding the removal of the Confederate flag from the state Capitol is the latest episode in a long-running debate over the legacy of slavery.&...
Jan 27, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Eric Foner
Was It Good Party Music? Was It Good Party Music?
Lionel Trilling once commented that "if ever we want to remind ourselves of the nature and power of art, we have only to think of how accurate reactionary governments are in thei...
Jan 27, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Jeremy Eichler
Not Dead Yet Not Dead Yet
Critics predicted the death of literature for much of the twentieth century, but at the dawn of the Internet age, the mantra is becoming conventional wisdom.
Jan 27, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman