I Wonder As I Wander I Wonder As I Wander
Rebecca Solnit's A Field Guide to Getting Lost plumbs the mysteries of losing oneself and finding oneself in the realm of the utter unknown.
Nov 2, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Michael Gorra
State of the Magazines State of the Magazines
On both sides of the Atlantic, liberal news magazines facing declining circulation have started to play into the celebrity culture. But there are gems that have the power to carry ...
Oct 27, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Victor Navasky
The Uncertainty Principle The Uncertainty Principle
By writing a novel about a conventional novelist writing about a conventional man, J.M. Coetzee's latest work illuminates the role of the novel and cuts through typical and tired t...
Oct 26, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Pankaj Mishra
Over My Dead Body Over My Dead Body
New biographies of Benito Mussolini and Marilyn Monroe contemplate exploitation of the body--in life and after death.
Oct 19, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Jon Mooallem
Rearranging the Furniture Rearranging the Furniture
For prose scholar Viktor Shklovsky, who lived by the code of style and studied its depths, an unhappy love affair can be as much a personal tragedy as a plot device for more writin...
Oct 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Elif Batuman
Fighting the Abyss Fighting the Abyss
Although The Aesthetics of Resistance delves into leftist notions of art and class struggle, this account of an anti-Nazi youth group in Germany seems outdated now.
Sep 29, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Noah Isenberg
In Search of Sam Cooke In Search of Sam Cooke
A womanizing gospel king and black-pride pop star, Sam Cooke led a short life filled with contradiction.
Sep 22, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Robert Christgau
New World Symphony New World Symphony
Joseph Horowitz diligently lays out the immense problems that face American classical music today, and his warnings cannot go unheeded.
Sep 15, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Russell Platt
Barbara Ehrenreich’s White Collar Blues Barbara Ehrenreich’s White Collar Blues
Barbara Ehrenreich probes a deeper level of white-collar angst: people who lose or quit their corporate jobs and routinely spend months, even years, finding another.
Sep 15, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Michael Kazin
Rushdie’s Receding Talent Rushdie’s Receding Talent
It has almost become a sadness to review a novel by Salman Rushdie. Shalimar the Clown is no exception.
Sep 15, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Lee Siegel