Do Sanctions Work? Do Sanctions Work?
A new history examines their use in the past and considers their effectiveness for the future.
Oct 6, 2022 / Books & the Arts / James Stafford
Hervé Guibert’s Last Laugh Hervé Guibert’s Last Laugh
His last novel, My Manservant and Me, was a bracing satire of illness, aging, and the representation of gay life in literature.
Oct 6, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Shiv Kotecha
Maggie Haberman’s Trump Biography Buys Into the Myth Maggie Haberman’s Trump Biography Buys Into the Myth
The book's focus on an individualized rise to power lets the American media, political system, and cult of entrepreneurship off the hook.
Oct 5, 2022 / Chris Lehmann
Olga Tokarczuk’s Panoramic Novel of Jewish Poland Olga Tokarczuk’s Panoramic Novel of Jewish Poland
A work defined by its narrative elasticity, The Books of Jacob tells the story of a false messiah not through his eyes but through the vibrant and now lost world around him.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Ilan Stavans
A Farewell to Arms A Farewell to Arms
(Draft-age Russian male version)
Oct 4, 2022 / Column / Calvin Trillin
The Mixtapes of Hua Hsu The Mixtapes of Hua Hsu
In his new memoir, Stay True, the New Yorker critic offers a coming-of-age story that doubles as a tale about friendship, music, and the politics of knowing oneself.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Summer Kim Lee
I.B. Singer’s Language of Everyday Life I.B. Singer’s Language of Everyday Life
By choosing to write in Yiddish rather than Hebrew, the young Singer declared his allegiance to the here and now rather than a biblical past or a Zionist future.
Oct 4, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Adam Kirsch
The Political Lessons of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” The Political Lessons of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”
The 1927 film raises the question, “Who will mediate between our head and our hands?”
Oct 4, 2022 / Column / David Bromwich
Off the Record: Barack Obama on Donald Trump Off the Record: Barack Obama on Donald Trump
A newly declassified press conference shows the former president’s prescience—and his blind spots.
Oct 3, 2022 / Jeet Heer
Thulani Davis’s Freedom Visions Thulani Davis’s Freedom Visions
Her new history of the Civil War and Reconstruction examines the ways in which Black Americans formed networks of self-reliance in their pursuit of emancipation.
Oct 3, 2022 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques