Elena Ferrante’s Class Dramas Elena Ferrante’s Class Dramas
Her latest novel, The Lying Life of Adults, mines the contradictions of class identity.
Feb 22, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Wilson
Can the Novel Document the Present in Real Time? Can the Novel Document the Present in Real Time?
Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet is an experiment in novel writing that closely tracks and analyzes the news as it happens.
Feb 8, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rumaan Alam
Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet? Can a Novel Really Capture the Spirit of the Internet?
Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts and the limits of literary fiction’s obsession with life online.
Feb 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / David Schurman Wallace
The Body, the State, the Border: On Cristina Rivera Garza The Body, the State, the Border: On Cristina Rivera Garza
Her fiction and essays illuminates how the language of violence is inherent to the disaster neoliberalism wrought in Mexico.
Feb 2, 2021 / Claire Mullen
The Worldmaking of N.K. Jemisin The Worldmaking of N.K. Jemisin
Through her speculative fiction, Jemisin builds worlds and probes them—exploring who they work for and how.
Jan 25, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse
The Pleasures of Shirley Hazzard’s Intricate Fictions The Pleasures of Shirley Hazzard’s Intricate Fictions
Her stories offer the opulent doom of ancient tragedy wrapped in mid-century garb.
Jan 14, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Dustin Illingworth
The Frenzied Paris of Virginie Despentes The Frenzied Paris of Virginie Despentes
Her trilogy of novels, Vernon Subutex, tell the story of a city and its inhabitants’ capacity for radical change.
Dec 21, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Jacqueline Feldman
The Blinding Clarity of John Le Carré The Blinding Clarity of John Le Carré
His novels of imperial decline speak to a world that has remained at war since his youth.
Dec 17, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Siddhartha Deb
Susan Taubes’s ‘Divorcing’ Asks: How Far Can the Novel Take You? Susan Taubes’s ‘Divorcing’ Asks: How Far Can the Novel Take You?
The sole book she released during her life was a work of ahead of its time in terms of style, irreverence, and experimentation.
Dec 2, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Schaffer-Goddard
Bryan Washington on Fiction ‘Outside the Bounds of Trauma’ Bryan Washington on Fiction ‘Outside the Bounds of Trauma’
A conversation about writing emphatically about marginalized communities, Houston’s diversity of cuisines and peoples, Japanese literature, and more.
Nov 25, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Rosemarie Ho