‘Goethe Dies’: A Brief and Headlong Book ‘Goethe Dies’: A Brief and Headlong Book
Thomas Bernhard makes intricate fiction from the grit and putty of life.
May 5, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier
What Is It Good For? What Is It Good For?
In his new story collection, Luke Mogelson demonstrates that American soldiers fight for someone, and something, other than the reasons you hear.
Apr 29, 2016 / Alina Cohen
Start Making Sense: Yes, Hillary Could Lose to Trump Start Making Sense: Yes, Hillary Could Lose to Trump
Plus Amy Wilentz on Hillary and Haiti, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel about Vietnam.
Apr 21, 2016 / Podcast / Start Making Sense and Jon Wiener
Callan Wink’s New West and Old Feelings Callan Wink’s New West and Old Feelings
In Dog Run Moon, disaster strikes everyone, even those who are right living.
Apr 19, 2016 / Erin Vanderhoof
The Need of the Forgotten The Need of the Forgotten
The novelist and poet Carmen Boullosa talks about her obsession with lost stories and found textual objects, and how rereading gives books new faces.
Apr 8, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Bady
Her Name Is Lucy Barton Her Name Is Lucy Barton
For all the plot devices that novelist Elizabeth Strout uses, My Name Is Lucy Barton’s successes rest on the protagonist’s voice.
Mar 22, 2016 / Erin Vanderhoof
A European Union? A European Union?
Stefan Zweig’s essays in Messages From a Lost World are a product of his displacement and a sharp reminder to citizens about the agony in the present age of the refugee.
Mar 10, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Gavin Jacobson
Ms. Grief Ms. Grief
Out of two new books, Constance Fenimore Woolson emerges as a figure of some dimension in her own right.
Mar 3, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
Jacqueline Susann’s Queer Feminism Jacqueline Susann’s Queer Feminism
How does Valley of the Dolls actually hold up as a read 50 years later?
Feb 26, 2016 / Tim Murphy
Whodunit, Ruth Rendell? Whodunit, Ruth Rendell?
The British crime novelist’s work displays a growing acuity of psychological perception and an authority to her moral vision.
Feb 25, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor