A Near Perfect Spy Novelist A Near Perfect Spy Novelist
A year ago now, when the Bush Administration was preparing the world for an American invasion of Iraq, John le Carré wrote a column of scathing, sharp-toothed commentary f...
Jan 8, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
A Kiss in Java A Kiss in Java
In a broad square not far from the center of Jakarta, a large obelisk of concrete soars into the sky.
Oct 23, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
A Stone Unturned A Stone Unturned
Someone once described Graham Greene as the novelist of decolonizing Britain.
Mar 27, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
Excursions in the Real World Excursions in the Real World
Why is so much fiction written in our language and why is so much of what is written of so little consequence?
Oct 31, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
Monterrey and the World Monterrey and the World
How are we to read the International Conference on Financing for Development, which recently concluded in Monterrey, Mexico? Just another United Nations talkathon?
Apr 4, 2002 / Feature / Patrick Smith
‘Manifest Duplicity’ ‘Manifest Duplicity’
Some Sundays back, the New York Times fronted a story from its Paris correspondent, Suzanne Daley, about the fear and loathing Americans induce among Europeans these days.
Oct 1, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
Japan: An Interpretation Japan: An Interpretation
Those inscrutable Japanese. They've inspired more trash between hard covers over the past century than anyone--far more than the Chinese, if that's what you're thinking. Mysteriou...
Jun 7, 2001 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
‘Our’ Gide? ‘Our’ Gide?
Whenever Gide wrote or spoke about himself directly, which was not infrequently, he would insist that his wars within were to be traced to his very genes.
Nov 25, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith
Harnessing the Rising Sun Harnessing the Rising Sun
Americans aren't much for history these days. History is for Europeans--for Germans, with their thickets of theory, and the French, who are forever going on about their revolutio...
Sep 2, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Smith