Books & the Arts

Gayl Jones’s Epic of Liberation

In her new novel, Jones offers a story of slavery and freedom in the Americas.

Farah Jasmine Griffin

John Rawls and Liberalism’s Selective Conscience

With its doctrine of fairness, A Theory of Justice transformed political philosophy. But what did it leave out?

Olúfémi O. Táíwò

Denis Villeneuve’s Humanistic “Dune”

His adaptation was the first to understand the scale—both intimate and epic—the sci-fi novel required to translate to film.

Erin Schwartz

From the Magazine

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.

Cora Currier

Francisco Goldman’s Altered States

In his new novel, Goldman asks readers to question the very essence of how we define ourselves.

Ed Morales

“Squid Game”’s Capitalist Parables

Netflix’s breakout series depicts a world of violent and macabre individualism and desperation.

E. Tammy Kim

Literary Criticism

Brandon Taylor’s Potlucks and Parties

In his new collection of short stories, the Booker-Prize nominated novelist explores the desires and discontents of people living in small university towns.

Jennifer Wilson

Sally Rooney’s Fiction for End Times

In her third novel, Rooney does more than just respond to critics; she surveys the wreckage of modern life.

Tony Tulathimutte

B&A Newsletter

History & Politics

David Graeber and David Wengrow’s Anarchist History of Humanity

In The Dawn of Everything, Graeber and Wengrow offer a sweeping and ambitious exploration of life without the state.

Daniel Immerwahr

Film

Joanna Hogg and the Art of Life

Her remarkable two-part film The Souvenir examines how an artist turns the fragments of their personal history into an enduring story.

Devika Girish

When does a life become a story, a narrative legible to those outside it? This question trills at the heart of Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir (2019) and the new The Souvenir Part II, a two-part film à clef constructed like a precarious house of cards: memories, texts, and ephemera from… Continue Reading >

Ad Policy

Television and Films

Dave Chappelle’s Comedy of Bitterness

In his recent special The Closer, and his response to critics of it, he outlines a strange version of identity politics where comedians are always the victims.

Stephen Kearse

“Squid Game”’s Capitalist Parables

Netflix’s breakout series depicts a world of violent and macabre individualism and desperation.

E. Tammy Kim

“Succession”’s Repetition Compulsion

In Succession’s moral universe, no one can ever get what they want or what they deserve.

Sam Adler-Bell

Politics

Whose Side Is the Supreme Court On?

Many people who came of age in the 1950s and 60s view the Supreme Court as a force for good when it comes to race. But the court has often been the most anti-progressive branch of the federal government.

Randall Kennedy

Many people who came of age between, say, 1940 and 1970 have become accustomed to seeing the Supreme Court as a force for good when it comes to race. They have developed a faith in the justices’ claim, voiced in 1940 in a decision overturning the convictions of Black defendants… Continue Reading >

Poems

November 24, 2021

Diane di Prima and the Dream of the East Village Avant-Garde

The poet’s recently released memoir of the 1960s, Spring and Autumn Annals, is an essential document in the history of New York’s downtown art scene.
Lynne Feeley
November 22, 2021

On the Overnight from Agadir

Charif Shanahan
November 11, 2021

25 scenes in which the circumstances did not apply

Radna Fabias
November 9, 2021

The Request of the Doe

Bianca Stone

Log In

Books & the Arts

In her new novel, Jones offers a story of slavery and freedom in the Americas.

With its doctrine of fairness, A Theory of Justice transformed political philosophy. But what did it leave out?

His adaptation was the first to understand the scale—both intimate and epic—the sci-fi novel required to translate to film.

From the Magazine

Rose’s latest book, On Violence and On Violence Against Women, is a rigorous and capacious study of contemporary gender politics and solidarity.

In his new novel, Goldman asks readers to question the very essence of how we define ourselves.

Netflix’s breakout series depicts a world of violent and macabre individualism and desperation.

Literary Criticism

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.

In his new collection of short stories, the Booker-Prize nominated novelist explores the desires and discontents of people living in small university towns.

In her third novel, Rooney does more than just respond to critics; she surveys the wreckage of modern life.

B&A Newsletter

Best of Books & the Arts

History & Politics

In The Dawn of Everything, Graeber and Wengrow offer a sweeping and ambitious exploration of life without the state.

Did the War on Terror put our democracy at risk—or reveal its flaws?

A new history considers how the struggle with Siberia’s permafrost redefined the country.

Film

Her remarkable two-part film The Souvenir examines how an artist turns the fragments of their personal history into an enduring story.

Television and Films

In his recent special The Closer, and his response to critics of it, he outlines a strange version of identity politics where comedians are always the victims.

Netflix’s breakout series depicts a world of violent and macabre individualism and desperation.

In Succession’s moral universe, no one can ever get what they want or what they deserve.

Politics

Many people who came of age in the 1950s and 60s view the Supreme Court as a force for good when it comes to race. But the court has often been the most anti-progressive branch of the federal government.

Poems

November 24, 2021

The poet’s recently released memoir of the 1960s, Spring and Autumn Annals, is an essential document in the history of New York’s downtown art scene.

November 22, 2021

November 11, 2021

November 9, 2021

Editor's Picks

More in Culture

Stephen Sondheim’s Art By Shuja Haider

Judy Collins Remembers Stephen Sondheim By Judy Collins

Denis Villeneuve’s Humanistic “Dune” By Erin Schwartz

Why Does Utopian Architecture Suck? By Kate Wagner

Letter From Italy By Daisy Cockburn

In Memoriam: Michael Sorkin, 1948–2020 By Mike Davis

The Mysteries of the Childhood Memoir By John Banville

The Unsure State of Asian America By Rosemarie Ho

Grace Cho’s Memoir of Food and Empire By E. Tammy Kim

The Hindu Right and Attacks on Academic Freedom in the US By Vinayak Chaturvedi

Stephen Sondheim’s Art By Shuja Haider

Hero as Intern By Calvin Trillin

Undanced Dances During a Pandemic By Suchi Branfman

The Coronavirus Means Curtains for Artists By William Deresiewicz

Dismantling Transphobia at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival By Elliot Ross