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
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
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
Who Was Kafka? Who Was Kafka?
A collection of ephemera complicates the picture of Franz Kafka as a tortured neurotic.
Feb 11, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Reiner Stach
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
Jonathan Franzen Withdraws Jonathan Franzen Withdraws
Why are the agonized liberals in Purity so skeptical of political conviction?
Oct 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jon Baskin
October 3, 1925: Gore Vidal Is Born October 3, 1925: Gore Vidal Is Born
“In hindsight, I can see that our ending was implicit in our beginning.”
Oct 3, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
Hear! Hear! George Scialabba Hear! Hear! George Scialabba
A gathering of luminaries and friends—including artist Joseph Ciardiello, with this drawing—celebrated the essayist and critic on the day of his retirement.
Sep 24, 2015 / Rick Perlstein