Fiction

September 26, 1888: T.S. Eliot Is Born

September 26, 1888: T.S. Eliot Is Born September 26, 1888: T.S. Eliot Is Born

“Even the creative imagination, hallucination and vision have atrophied, so that water shall never again be struck from a rock in the desert.”

Sep 26, 2015 / 150th Anniversary / Richard Kreitner

The Sanitorium Vincent in France, one of several institutions where Max Blecher convalesced.

Romancing the Remains Romancing the Remains

A tubercular Surrealist describes his convalescence. What could go right?

Sep 24, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ricky D’Ambrose

Naples, Italy.

Conditions of Emergence: On Elena Ferrante Conditions of Emergence: On Elena Ferrante

In the pseudonymous author’s Neapolitan Novels, the price of leaving Naples is that you can never be at home again.

Sep 24, 2015 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz

Rafia Zakaria (credit: Jeremy Hogan)

Divided Affections Divided Affections

One writer’s fight against traditions that stifle women in Pakistan.

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

Letters Icon

Letters From the September 28–October 5, 2015, Issue Letters From the September 28–October 5, 2015, Issue

Ishmael Reed on life in the Major League; Scott Walker as Nixon’s protégé…

Sep 10, 2015 / Letters / Our Readers and Jesse McCarthy

Miriam Toews (credit: Carol Loewen)

The Unfathomable Sadness The Unfathomable Sadness

Miriam Toews writes about death and mental illness without sentimentality or sweeping platitudes.

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Lauren Oyler

Saul Bellow (middle) after acknowledging his receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature, October 22, 1976. (Credit: Charles Knoblock / AP)

The Flow of Life The Flow of Life

Is Saul Bellow the central American novelist since Willa Cather and William Faulkner?

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / David Mikics

September 10, 1885: Carl Van Doren Is Born

September 10, 1885: Carl Van Doren Is Born September 10, 1885: Carl Van Doren Is Born

“He has labored untiringly to dig the weeds out of the annals of American fiction.”

Sep 10, 2015 / 150th Anniversary / Richard Kreitner

September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies

September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies September 2, 1973: J.R.R. Tolkien Dies

“One is puzzled to know why the author should have supposed he was writing for adults.… There is little in The Lord of the Rings over the head of a seven-year-old child.”

Sep 2, 2015 / 150th Anniversary / Richard Kreitner

Yoss

Welcome to Earth: Cuba’s ‘Special Period’ Gets the Sci-Fi Treatment Welcome to Earth: Cuba’s ‘Special Period’ Gets the Sci-Fi Treatment

The funny, scathing, and heart-wrenching universe of A Planet for Rent.

Aug 27, 2015 / Books & the Arts / André Naffis-Sahely

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