Steve Earle’s Labor of Love Steve Earle’s Labor of Love
The music on Townes, Steve Earle's tribute to Townes Van Zandt, is simple and literally homespun. There is sinew to this music, and blood in the words.
May 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Charles P. Pierce
Chop Shops Chop Shops
Over a decade ago, in his novel The Ax, Donald E. Westlake captured the ruthlessness and anomie of economic Darwinism.
May 26, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor
Cheney vs. Obama: The No-So-Epic Battle Cheney vs. Obama: The No-So-Epic Battle
Jon Stewart surveys the coverage and content of President Obama's and Dick Cheney's concurrent national security speeches.
May 22, 2009 / The Daily Show
The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes
Book publishers have always predicted that the end was nigh. When it does come they will have only themselves to blame.
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Elisabeth Sifton
No Ideas but in Crowds: Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen No Ideas but in Crowds: Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen
In Paris Spleen, Charles Baudelaire crystallized a new feeling: the private life of the public turn.
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Clover
Comfort and Agony: Jennifer Moxley’s Clampdown Comfort and Agony: Jennifer Moxley’s Clampdown
Instead of offering healing or empowerment, the poetry of Jennifer Moxley explores vulnerability and "wrong life."
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
Back Talk: Philip Alcabes Back Talk: Philip Alcabes
Epidemiologist Philip Alcabes discusses the social fears surrounding epidemics and why risk can't be eliminated from life.
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood
Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism
If art is a product of the mind, and the mind a product of evolution, is art a product of evolution?
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Toad Skin? Fernando del Paso’s News From the Empire Toad Skin? Fernando del Paso’s News From the Empire
News From the Empire hacks out a sinuous, branching path that connects fantasy with fact and allegory with analysis.
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Lorna Scott Fox
Puttin’ on the Glitz: José Manuel Prieto’s Rex Puttin’ on the Glitz: José Manuel Prieto’s Rex
Set in the glossiest of sanctuaries, Rex is a complicated and dazzling indictment of contemporary fiction.
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer