Ron DeSantis, American Psycho Ron DeSantis, American Psycho
The Florida governor’s irony-poisoned ad uses far-right memes to sanction homophobic and transphobic violence.
Jul 10, 2023 / Jeet Heer
Aleksandar Hemon’s Kaleidoscopic Fiction of War and Peace Aleksandar Hemon’s Kaleidoscopic Fiction of War and Peace
While most of his studies of dislocation were set in the present, in his new novel he examines a lost past.
Jul 10, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Adam Kirsch
Don DeLillo’s Cold Wars Don DeLillo’s Cold Wars
His 1980s novels take the story of America’s postwar years, usually seen as a triumphal rise to perpetual dominance, and converts it into one about a long and chaotic decline.
Jun 26, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Siddhartha Deb
Nona Fernandez and the Black Hole of Collective Memory Nona Fernandez and the Black Hole of Collective Memory
Her book-length essay Voyager examines life after Pinochet—and the disjunctures in public remembering the era produced—through an exploration of the stars.
Jun 22, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Amanda Paige Inman
Cormac McCarthy’s Unforgiving Parables of American Empire Cormac McCarthy’s Unforgiving Parables of American Empire
He demonstrated how the frontier wasn’t an incubator of democratic equality but a place of unrelenting pain, cruelty, and suffering.
Jun 21, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Greg Grandin
Eat, Pray, Cringe Eat, Pray, Cringe
Elizabeth Gilbert’s next novel faced outcry for its setting in Russia. So, before she could get canceled, she canceled herself.
Jun 14, 2023 / Katha Pollitt
Olaf Stapledon’s Cosmology of Peace Olaf Stapledon’s Cosmology of Peace
In his science fiction classic Star Maker, he imagines a way to overcome fascism on a galactic scale.
Jun 7, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Jaime Green
How Black Women Writers Got It Done How Black Women Writers Got It Done
Claudia Tate’s 1983 collection of interviews is an important look into the trials writers like Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou faced on their way to mainstream acceptance.
Jun 6, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Marina Magloire
Ferit Edgü’s Prescient Fiction of a Turkey in Crisis Ferit Edgü’s Prescient Fiction of a Turkey in Crisis
His books, which examined the plight of eastern Turkey and the vanity of the Istanbul bourgeoise, take on new meaning after the February 6 earthquakes.
Jun 5, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Kaya Genç
Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables Katherine Dunn’s Counterculture Parables
Dunn’s books are often described as cult classics, which fits not only in the sense that they inspire devotion but also in the sense that cults of personality always appear in them...
Jun 1, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nora Caplan-Bricker