-
FictionSeptember 24, 2015
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.
William Deresiewicz
-
Higher EducationJuly 2, 2015
Why Philanthropy Won’t Solve the Higher-Ed Crisis
Relying on the rich to make college affordable for poor students reinforces the system that created those inequalities in the first place.
William Deresiewicz
-
FictionMay 12, 2015
Diminishing Returns
The writings of Tom McCarthy are a case study in the application of theory to fiction.
William Deresiewicz
-
FictionMay 13, 2014
Why Has ‘My Struggle’ Been Anointed a Literary Masterpiece?
With its lack of art and absence of thought, the blockbuster Norwegian novel disappoints.
William Deresiewicz
-
The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.
-
FictionMarch 5, 2014
-
Literary CriticismFebruary 28, 2013
Passing the Signal Along
The task of a critic has to do with the nature of the knowledge we call art.
William Deresiewicz
-
CultureMay 16, 2012
‘I Was There’: On Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut sought to fool us with his eyes wide open.
William Deresiewicz
-
BiographyNovember 22, 2011
Beattitudes: On Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie is an artist of the things we don’t say, or can’t, and that find expression anyway.
William Deresiewicz
-
CultureJune 15, 2011
The Children’s Hospital: On David Foster Wallace
Vulnerability was what made David Foster Wallace so beloved, but it often led him to surrender too much in his fiction.
William Deresiewicz
-
CultureMay 4, 2011
Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education
The exploitation of contingent labor, a shrinking middle class, administrative elephantiasis: the turmoil in academia is a microcosm of American society as a whole.
William Deresiewicz