Modern Love Modern Love
Two new biographies of Clement Greenberg take the measure of an ambitious art critic who had a knack for predicting success.
Sep 28, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Screamin’ at the Machine Screamin’ at the Machine
We should be cheering at sports events and screaming at politicians. But these days, it's vice versa. Now that ESPN's Screamin' Stephen A. Smith is acting like a pundit, things cou...
Sep 26, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Dave Zirin
Dead Flowers Dead Flowers
Reviews of Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia and Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy.
Sep 20, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Father Knows Best Father Knows Best
Have you attacked the Founding Fathers lately? Know anyone who has? Gordon Wood knows you're out there, on a campaign to dehumanize Washington, Jefferson and their peers.
Sep 20, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Nicholas Guyatt
Laundry Laundry
Our cat, who's over nineteen, likes to sleep
on the massed softness of a pile of shirts,
two, three, four, flung on the floor
but soon to be gathered up
Sep 20, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Rachel Hadas
Science Fiction Science Fiction
Richard Powers's The Echo Maker speaks volumes about neuroscience, nature and environmental degradation. But it says little about what it means to be alive.
Sep 20, 2006 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Short Takes Short Takes
Reviews of Half of a Yellow Sun, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and The City Is a Rising Tide.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Fatin Abbas and Christine Smallwood
As If I Had Become Happy As If I Had Become Happy
As if I had become happy: I went back. I pressed
the doorbell more than once, and waited...
(perhaps I am late. No one is opening the door, not
a groan in the hallway).
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Mahmoud Darwish
Unnatural Disaster Unnatural Disaster
Three new books reappraise the massive earthquake of 1906, which was felt across an area of 400,000 miles and leveled much of San Francisco.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Ari Kelman
The Lives They Led The Lives They Led
Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children is a superb comedy of manners, a richly tragicomic view of three thirtysomething Ivy Leaguers in the days leading up to 9/11.
Sep 14, 2006 / Books & the Arts / Kate Levin