‘On the Edge’ Gives No Pleasure ‘On the Edge’ Gives No Pleasure
Rafael Chirbes’s second work to be translated into English operates like a psychological health tonic: It’s corrosive going down, but afterward the effect is invigorating.
Feb 25, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier
A Larger Life A Larger Life
What A Little Life, the churn of narrative nonfiction, and, thus, likely our real views of victims of trauma are missing is the recognition of agency.
Feb 24, 2016 / Larissa Pham
Harper Lee, 1926–2016 Harper Lee, 1926–2016
Lee belonged to a generation of Southern writers who rejected the racist heritage of their childhoods but not the world that nurtured it.
Feb 22, 2016 / Richard Lingeman
Human Nature Shines Through Human Nature Shines Through
Garth Greenwell’s exquisite first novel outlines the shape of desire by filling in everything around it.
Feb 10, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Damon Galgut
Vladimir Sorokin’s Absurdist Excess Vladimir Sorokin’s Absurdist Excess
Even the Russian author’s most sincere explorations tend toward brutal deadpan satire, cartoonish extremes of violence, comically unsexy sex, and flatulence.
Feb 4, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Ben Ehrenreich
J.M. Coetzee’s Facts of Life J.M. Coetzee’s Facts of Life
For the South African author, the selves we write and read may be truer than any other.
Jan 28, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld
Rushdie Misses the Magic Rushdie Misses the Magic
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights has all the markers of a Salman Rushdie novel, but it’s not a great book.
Jan 21, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier
December 29, 1922: William Gaddis Is Born December 29, 1922: William Gaddis Is Born
“What [The Recognitions] lacks, like all claustrophobic works of art, is imagination.”
Dec 29, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
The Dickensian Politics of Trump and His Fellow Scrooges The Dickensian Politics of Trump and His Fellow Scrooges
Political misers still refuse to make it their business to improve the lot of the working poor.
Dec 24, 2015 / John Nichols
December 20, 1968: John Steinbeck Dies December 20, 1968: John Steinbeck Dies
“I have no doubt that, being human, he enjoys praise, but he has consistently shunned the mechanics and functionaries of publicity.”
Dec 20, 2015 / Richard Kreitner