Blake Bailey’s Life as a Man Blake Bailey’s Life as a Man
The disgraced writer’s Philip Roth biography is a document of a misogynist literary world. But I had to read the book to get the whole story.
Apr 28, 2021 / Katha Pollitt
Vivian Gornick in Reverse Vivian Gornick in Reverse
A conversation with the writer about her life and work.
Mar 11, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Gold
The Worlds of Edward Said The Worlds of Edward Said
An exile who made the world his home, Said infused his literary style with a cosmopolitan ease and his political commitments with a cosmopolitan ethics.
May 5, 2020 / Books & the Arts / Rashid Khalidi
The Tangled History of Illness and Idiocy The Tangled History of Illness and Idiocy
The pandemic is stress-testing two concepts Americans have historically gotten wrong.
Apr 13, 2020 / Jessi Jezewska Stevens
Peter Handke’s Nobel Condones Violence Peter Handke’s Nobel Condones Violence
One of Sweden’s most important authors on how the Swedish Academy abuses its platform—and the intelligentsia lets it happen.
Oct 18, 2019 / Johannes Anyuru
L’État, C’est Moi L’État, C’est Moi
Trump intends to speak at the traditionally nonpartisan Fourth of July celebration on the Mall.—news reports Though past presidents never inserted themselves In this fete, Donald T…
Jun 18, 2019 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Carlos Bulosan’s 1946 Novel About Filipino Migrant Workers Is Still Groundbreaking Carlos Bulosan’s 1946 Novel About Filipino Migrant Workers Is Still Groundbreaking
When we read a book like America Is in the Heart, we have the chance to be not just readers of American history’s horrors, but its witnesses and inheritors.
May 1, 2019 / Elaine Castillo
Rediscovering Nelson Algren Rediscovering Nelson Algren
The literary giant’s unique resonance in our anti-capitalist moment.
Mar 19, 2019 / Dan Simon
Hunting for Lions and Liberation Hunting for Lions and Liberation
Rachel Ingalls’s 1983 novel Binstead’s Safari is a fable-like account of the price of feminism and the freedom from domesticity.
Mar 13, 2019 / Maya Binyam