Books & the Arts

The Worlds of Jamaica Kincaid The Worlds of Jamaica Kincaid

Memory pervades a new collection of nonfiction, and so do the ghosts of empire.

Books & the Arts / Edna Bonhomme

What Is Artificial Intelligence Anyway? What Is Artificial Intelligence Anyway?

Separating out the myths and facts of AI.

Books & the Arts / Ben Tarnoff

Jay McInerney’s Yuppie New York Jay McInerney’s Yuppie New York

The novelist has spent a career mocking and romanticizing the lifestyle of New York’s bourgeoisie. Now, in his latest, he examines them as they come to the end of their lives.

Books & the Arts / Erin Somers

From the Magazine

John Updike, Letter Writer

John Updike, Letter Writer John Updike, Letter Writer

A brilliant prose stylist, confident, amiable, and wonderfully lucid when talking about other people’s problems, Updike rarely confessed or confronted his own.

Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick

Harry Haywood and the Radical Politics of Black Communism

Harry Haywood and the Radical Politics of Black Communism Harry Haywood and the Radical Politics of Black Communism

For Haywood, a truly radical working-class politics in the United States also required a program of self-determination.

Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques

The Riotous Worlds of Thomas Pynchon

The Riotous Worlds of Thomas Pynchon The Riotous Worlds of Thomas Pynchon

From “The Crying Lot of 49” to his latest noirs, the American novelist has always proceeded along a track strangely parallel to our own.

Books & the Arts / Benjamin Kunkel

Literary Criticism

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love

James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love James Baldwin’s Radical Politics of Love

While Baldwin was persecuted in part because of whom he loved, it was love that impelled him to bring about a more utopian future in which such persecution was not possible.

Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques

Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel

Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel Helen DeWitt and Ilya Gridneff’s Sweeping Anti-War Novel

Your Name Here dramatizes the tensions and possibilities of political art.

Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman

Franz Kafka’s  Best Friend

Franz Kafka’s Best Friend Franz Kafka’s Best Friend

Kafka’s late story about a philosopher dog, like most of his stories about animals, is really about our lost humanity.

Books & the Arts / Jonathan Lethem

History & Politics

A group welcomes Angelo Herndon to New York after his release on bail from the Georgia State Prison.

Angelo Herndon and the Radical Politics of Free Speech Angelo Herndon and the Radical Politics of Free Speech

The story ofhis landmark case reminds us of how powerful a popular front of socialists and liberals can be in protecting our civil liberties.

Books & the Arts / Randall Kennedy

Idi Amin in Kampala, 1975.

Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda Mahmood Mamdani’s Uganda

In his new book Slow Poison, the accomplished anthropologist revisits the Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni years.

Books & the Arts / Howard W. French

Joe Biden at a cabinet meeting in 2021.

The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy The Catastrophe of Democratic Foreign Policy

A new book on the Biden’s wars serves as a stark reminder that the Democrats need to formulate a new foreign policy—as well as reckon with the one they had.

Books & the Arts / Matthew Duss

Art & Architecture

Rain and Mountains

Rain and Mountains Rain and Mountains

Pages from a novelist’s notebook.

Books & the Arts / Orhan Pamuk

Kara Walker, “Fortuna and the Immortality Garden (Machine),” 2024 © Kara Walker.

The Art and Automatons of Kara Walker The Art and Automatons of Kara Walker

Walker’s new installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art offers us visions from both the past and future.

Books & the Arts / Rachel Hunter Himes

An undated photograph of Bush Terminal.

The Transformation of the New York Waterfront The Transformation of the New York Waterfront

From the Navy Yard and Industry City to the recent remaking of Bush Terminal, developers are attempting to remake Brooklyn’s coastline.

Books & the Arts / Karrie Jacobs

Film & Television

A still from “After the Hunt.”

The Messy Campus Thriller of “After the Hunt” The Messy Campus Thriller of “After the Hunt”

Luca Guadagnino’s films have always asked viewers to turn off their brains when it comes to love and sex. In his new film, he asks the opposite.

Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

The Grand Delusions of “Marty Supreme”

The Grand Delusions of “Marty Supreme” The Grand Delusions of “Marty Supreme”

Josh Safdie’s first solo effort, an antic sports movie, revels in a darker side of the American dream.

Books & the Arts / Erin Schwartz

The Banal Spectacle of “Avatar: Fire and Ash”

The Banal Spectacle of “Avatar: Fire and Ash” The Banal Spectacle of “Avatar: Fire and Ash”

Has James Cameron’s epic sci-fi series run aground?

Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

Latest in Books & the Arts

Children looking at a mural of Antonio Gramsci, 1975.

The Ghosts of Antonio Gramsci The Ghosts of Antonio Gramsci

Andy Merrifield’s, Roses for Gramsci, a highly personal history of the Italian thinker and his work, examines his influence across generations.

Jun 3, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Aditya Bahl

Tiki-torch wielding protesters on the campus of the University of Virginia on the night before the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, 2017.

The Troubled History of Charlottesville The Troubled History of Charlottesville

Deborah Baker’s Charlottesville: An American Story is history of the city and how its checkered past ultimately led to the Unite the Right rally.

Jun 2, 2026 / Books & the Arts / José Sanchez

Do We Live in the Age of “Hyperpolitics”?

Do We Live in the Age of “Hyperpolitics”? Do We Live in the Age of “Hyperpolitics”?

A conversation with the historian Anton Jäger about political polarization, the stagnation of the West, and the collapse of mass politics in the 20th century.

Jun 1, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Louis Marcoussis, “Le Lecteur,” 1937.

The Rise of the Sensitivity Reader The Rise of the Sensitivity Reader

Adam Szetela’s That Book Is Dangerous! examines the emergence of a new job in publishing—secondary readers who comb through books for possible offenses.

May 27, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Kyle Paoletta

Pierre Guyotat’s Moral Order

Pierre Guyotat’s Moral Order Pierre Guyotat’s Moral Order

The French writer’s fiction engages in a radical egalitarian project aimed at negating the right’s nihilism.

May 26, 2026 / Books & the Arts / R.K. Hegelman

Claude Monet, “The Saint-Lazare Station,” 1877.

Searching for Solidarity at the Train Station Searching for Solidarity at the Train Station

Mattia Filice’s Driver, a poetic novel about train conductors in France, offers an empathetic vision of working for the public.

May 25, 2026 / Books & the Arts / Sara Krolewski

x