As If I Had Become Happy As If I Had Become Happy
As if I had become happy: I went back. I pressed
the doorbell more than once, and waited...
(perhaps I am late. No one is opening the door, not
a groan in the hallway).
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Mahmoud Darwish
Unnatural Disaster Unnatural Disaster
Three new books reappraise the massive earthquake of 1906, which was felt across an area of 400,000 miles and leveled much of San Francisco.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Ari Kelman
The Lives They Led The Lives They Led
Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children is a superb comedy of manners, a richly tragicomic view of three thirtysomething Ivy Leaguers in the days leading up to 9/11.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Kate Levin
The Illusionist The Illusionist
Alexander Stille's The Sack of Rome explores how Silvio Berlusconi subverted Italy's government, history and culture.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Tobias Jones
Music of My Mind Music of My Mind
John Gennari's Blowin' Hot and Cool looks at the intimate but fractious relationship between jazz luminaries and their critics.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / David Yaffe
China’s Neoliberal Dynasty China’s Neoliberal Dynasty
As China's economy surges forward, so does the pileup of social contradictions: pollution, migration, crime and family dysfunction.
Sep 14, 2006 / Feature / Peter Kwong
Congo Journey Congo Journey
It was the strangest journey of my life, and it will always be. I was looking for fictional characters I had invented, in a country I had never visited.
Sep 14, 2006 / Feature / John le Carré
Lying About 9/11? Easy as ABC Lying About 9/11? Easy as ABC
Why did the network humiliate its news division, ignore historians and insult Americans with a 9/11 docudrama that it knew was a tissue of lies?
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman
A Klatch of Civilizations A Klatch of Civilizations
As Survivor races to the bottom by dividing this season's contenders into race-based tribes, perhaps we can look to Starbucks for new models of how to blend in.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Patricia J. Williams
George Bush Explains His Policy on Torture To Someone Who Is Being Waterboarded George Bush Explains His Policy on Torture To Someone Who Is Being Waterboarded
Don't worry--it only feels like you're drowning.
Sep 14, 2006 / Column / Calvin Trillin