Back Talk: E.L. Doctorow Back Talk: E.L. Doctorow
A conversation with the author of Homer and Langley about opting out.
Sep 23, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood
A Domestic Existentialist: On Mercè Rodoreda A Domestic Existentialist: On Mercè Rodoreda
Mercè Rodoreda's fiction plumbs a sadness borne of helplessness, an almost voluptuous vulnerability.
Sep 16, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer
Speak as Little as Possible: On Clarice Lispector Speak as Little as Possible: On Clarice Lispector
Novelist Clarice Lispector idealized animals and idiots because they were free of the desire to translate experience into words.
Sep 10, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Rachel Aviv
Aracataca and Sucre Aracataca and Sucre
Will narrowed on a single object and fixed in the face of adversity--such is the recurring story of Gabriel García Márquez's work and life.
Sep 2, 2009 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
In the Theater of Isak Dinesen In the Theater of Isak Dinesen
A reconsideration of the fictive truths behind a storyteller's many masks.
Aug 12, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Joanna Scott
Iron Hans Iron Hans
Novelist Hans Fallada resented the constraints of the Nazi era but did not desist in his craft.
Jun 24, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Benjamin Lytal
Seed Projects: The Fiction of Alejandro Zambra Seed Projects: The Fiction of Alejandro Zambra
Does Alejandro Zambra's Bonsai mark the end of an era in Chilean literature?
Jun 17, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Marcela Valdes
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
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