Jonathan Franzen’s God Jonathan Franzen’s God
A multigenerational saga about a Midwestern family, Crossroads is like most of Franzen novels—with one exception: Every plotline leads to the big guy himself.
Oct 18, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rumaan Alam
New York City’s State of Permanent Crisis New York City’s State of Permanent Crisis
How New Yorkers trying to ward off catastrophe paved the road to the privatized city.
Oct 14, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Nick Juravich
The Unsure State of Asian America The Unsure State of Asian America
A conversation with Jay Caspian Kang about how the term “Asian American” became “mostly meaningless.”
Oct 13, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Rosemarie Ho
Virginie Despentes’s Philosophy of Rage Virginie Despentes’s Philosophy of Rage
Her manifesto King Kong Theory presents a seductive yet contradictory vision of feminism.
Oct 12, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Dilara O’Neil
Someone Else’s Discomfort: On Gregg Bordowitz Someone Else’s Discomfort: On Gregg Bordowitz
How the writer, artist, and activist exposes what is fraught in masculinity.
Oct 11, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Hua Hsu
The Grotesque and Sublime Transformations of “Titane” The Grotesque and Sublime Transformations of “Titane”
Julia Ducournau’s surreal horror film is a harrowing exploration of the body and technology.
Oct 7, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Phoebe Chen
Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation? Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation?
In his new book, The Crooked Path to Abolition, James Oakes argues that the Constitution was an antislavery document.
Oct 6, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Richard Kreitner
Anthony Veasna So’s Portraits of Diaspora Anthony Veasna So’s Portraits of Diaspora
His posthumous collection Afterparties is part of a new wave of writing on the cultural memory and historical traumas of Southeast Asian immigrants.
Oct 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Larissa Pham
The Expansive Feminism of Jacqueline Rose The Expansive Feminism of Jacqueline Rose
Rose’s latest book, On Violence and On Violence Against Women, is a rigorous and capacious study of contemporary gender politics and solidarity.
Oct 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Cora Currier
Eric Williams and the Tangled History of Capitalism and Slavery Eric Williams and the Tangled History of Capitalism and Slavery
The historian and politician helped transform how several generations understood 18th- and 19th-century history.
Oct 5, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Gerald Horne