A Sort of Homecoming A Sort of Homecoming
"The spell of Africa is upon me," wrote W.E.B. Du Bois in Liberia. Three new books document the enchantment and disenchantment of the continent for its descendants.
Aug 24, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Hazel Rowley
Virtual Catastrophe Virtual Catastrophe
World Trade Center's hero is a tough ex-Marine who later re-enlists to fight in Iraq. But his (and Oliver Stone's) redemption narrative is soured by bad faith.
Aug 24, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Presidential Eating Preferences Presidential Eating Preferences
Everyone knows what his predecessors liked for dinner. But there's one special dish we'd really like to serve George W. Bush.
Aug 24, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Inside the Alleged Mind of Bill O’Reilly Inside the Alleged Mind of Bill O’Reilly
Looking for a blast of hot air? Two intrepid literary critics venture deep into the steaming, muddy jungles of the Fox News pundit's award-losing prose.
Aug 22, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer
The Strange Silence of Günter Grass The Strange Silence of Günter Grass
By concealing for a near-lifetime that he had served in the Waffen SS, literary giant Günter Grass treated himself with an indulgence he did not hesitate to deem a moral defec...
Aug 18, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Norman Birnbaum
The Magic Bus The Magic Bus
Reviews of Little Miss Sunshine, Quinceañera, My Country, My Country, The Pusher Trilogy and The Bridesmaid.
Aug 10, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
The Prison Notebooks The Prison Notebooks
Nikolai Bukharin's Philosophical Arabesques is more than a cul-de-sac on the road from Marx to Stalin; the book defines a political path still not taken.
Aug 10, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Ronald Grigor Suny
Journals of the Purge Years Journals of the Purge Years
Revolution on My Mind is a new analysis of personal diaries written in the shadow of Stalin.
Aug 10, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Sheila Fitzpatrick
Same Old Song Same Old Song
American history is marked by waves of immigrants--from Germans in the eighteenth century to Mexicans in the twenty-first--and by nativist backlashes against them.
Aug 10, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Tichenor
‘Mushroom Cloud’ Rice, The Icy Spinmeister, Tries Again ‘Mushroom Cloud’ Rice, The Icy Spinmeister, Tries Again
Condi takes her "birth pangs" mantra on the road.
Aug 10, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin