The Mysteries of the Childhood Memoir The Mysteries of the Childhood Memoir
Richard Wollheim’s Germs is a brilliant and curious example of a genre dedicated to unraveling the riddles of a time we have a hard time remembering.
Oct 20, 2021 / Books & the Arts / John Banville
I Just Chose My Place and Let the Circle Form Around Me I Just Chose My Place and Let the Circle Form Around Me
N behold the Lord a neutron star had been “missing” for 32 years visible light faded gradually over 500 days, then astrophysicists announced they had seen a hot,…
Oct 19, 2021 / Poems / Oliver Baez Bendorf
What Riot? What Riot?
Mike Pence stood up to Donald Trump’s tirade. He certified the vote. He was unflinching. He now implies that day’s been overblown, Though he’s the one the mob had talked of lynchin…
Oct 19, 2021 / Column / Calvin Trillin
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 Changing Hymn (Allegory of the Singing Lover) The Changing Hymn (Allegory of the Singing Lover)
For Mary Rose During the Trouble Years my love sang the same song every day but every day she’d change—slightly—the words One day she sang a song for sweepers and the next day the…
Oct 14, 2021 / Poems / Patrick Rosal
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
A September to Remember A September to Remember
Embroidering recent history.
Oct 12, 2021 / OppArt / India Tresselt
Parable of the Magpie and the Mirror Parable of the Magpie and the Mirror
A certain scientist had a cage, and took a magpie, and put the magpie in the cage. And the magpie’s head and neck were black, and black were its beak and eyes, but the breast and b…
Oct 12, 2021 / Poems / Monica Youn
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