The Noisy Silence of Picasso’s Guitars The Noisy Silence of Picasso’s Guitars
His sculptures reveal the artist’s secret affinities with nascent anti-colonialist movements.
Oct 22, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Something Important Seeping Out of the World Something Important Seeping Out of the World
Films about mourning and illness, and some worthy commercial fare, dominated this year’s New York Film Festival.
Oct 22, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Self as Sovereign Self as Sovereign
Where do we get the notion of mind as separate from body?
Oct 22, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Emily Wilson
Rot as Rapture, Filth as Rebellion Rot as Rapture, Filth as Rebellion
In Ottessa Moshfegh’s first full-length novel, the allure of dissolution is that it demands nothing.
Oct 15, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Katie Ryder
Vagrancy in the Park Vagrancy in the Park
The essence of Wallace Stevens: Roses, roses. Fable and dream. The pilgrim sun.
Oct 15, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Susan Howe
Nobel Prize Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s Oral Histories Are Chronicles of the Future Nobel Prize Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s Oral Histories Are Chronicles of the Future
In her cantos of loss readers feel a sense of communion, of a shared humanity in the face of horror.
Oct 9, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Andrew Meier
How Patti Smith, Punk Chanteuse, Became the Irresistible Siren of Middle Age How Patti Smith, Punk Chanteuse, Became the Irresistible Siren of Middle Age
Her latest memoir, M Train, feels guided simultaneously by determination and serendipity.
Oct 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
Jonathan Franzen Withdraws Jonathan Franzen Withdraws
Why are the agonized liberals in Purity so skeptical of political conviction?
Oct 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jon Baskin
Who Talks Like That? Who Talks Like That?
The Narrows is strips of yellow and jade, Verrazano Bridge silver, horizontal lines, here; and here, someone alone, afraid, crying, sad, sunken eyes, emaciated body; and, here, the…
Oct 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Lawrence Joseph
The Good, the Bad, and the Veteran The Good, the Bad, and the Veteran
Problem-solving will only get liars and filmmakers so far.
Oct 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans