-
FictionJune 28, 2021
Diane Johnson’s Homecoming
In her new novel, the novelist returns to the United States to offer a self-conscious story of American fragmentation.
Becca Rothfeld
-
FictionJuly 29, 2019
Bruno Schulz’s Dream Worlds
Born in turn-of-the-century Poland, Schulz lived both longer and better in his books than in real life.
Becca Rothfeld
-
FictionOctober 11, 2018
The Magic of Helen DeWitt
In the world of Some Trick, the best words are so acute they lacerate.
Becca Rothfeld
-
February 22, 2018
Christa Wolf’s Life Under Surveillance
In her diaries, the German novelist recorded a life of watching and being watched.
Becca Rothfeld
-
The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.
-
FictionAugust 9, 2017
The Uncanny World of Deborah Levy
The English novelist is a connoisseur of domestic disturbances.
Becca Rothfeld
-
FictionSeptember 9, 2016
Affliction and Salvation
Love was a learned art for Iris Murdoch, because it involved realizing that something other than the self is real.
Becca Rothfeld
-
FictionAugust 17, 2016
Ghostly Presences
Unable to write effectively but unable to remain silent, W.G. Sebald, like the narrator of The Emigrants, is condemned to speak unsatisfactorily.
Becca Rothfeld
-
Literary CriticismJuly 21, 2016
The Partisan Reviewer
In two recent essay collections, Tim Parks explores why we bother with reading and writing books.
Becca Rothfeld
-
FictionJanuary 28, 2016
J.M. Coetzee’s Facts of Life
For the South African author, the selves we write and read may be truer than any other.
Becca Rothfeld
-
FictionNovember 25, 2015
Real, Realist, Realistic, and False
Linda Rosenkrantz’s 1968 quasi-novel Talk reminds us that wry self-awareness and anxious fragility are hardly millennial inventions.
Becca Rothfeld