Waits: Guthrie’s Heir? Waits: Guthrie’s Heir?
Tom Waits is an imaginary hobo. He cruises the oddball corners of American pop culture, collecting the deft and moving and loopy short takes he sees and imagines there.
May 6, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Gene Santoro
The Spies Who Loved Us? The Spies Who Loved Us?
I still kick myself for not having saved the short story I wrote for composition class in seventh grade in which I described how the Russians took over my small suburban communit...
May 6, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Ellen Schrecker
Global Indigestion Global Indigestion
I coined the term "global brunch" several years ago after seeing a film of the Stravinsky-Cocteau Oedipus Rex as staged by Julie Taymor.
Apr 29, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Fading Czech Velvet Fading Czech Velvet
As I'm driven to the home of Ivan Klima, one of the Czech Republic's most internationally respected writers, the hand of fate slips in beside me in the taxi.
Apr 29, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Mark Schapiro
The Way of All Flesh The Way of All Flesh
Hark! The squeal of the two-headed amphibian. Mating season must have begun.
Apr 21, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Rushdie as Orpheus, on Guitar Rushdie as Orpheus, on Guitar
From the Satanic Versifier, more love and more death, with a song in his heart.
Apr 21, 1999 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
Bioterrorism Hits Home Bioterrorism Hits Home
The high moral tone in Washington and London about "rogue" states, such as Iraq, building arsenals of biological weapons belies a shameful past.
Apr 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Peter Pringle
Accountant of Death Accountant of Death
After we admit that all historical circumstances are specific and all sufferings absolute--that Serbian "police" are not Nazis and ethnic Albanians not Jews (and NATO forces can...
Apr 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Solzhenitsyn’s History Lesson Solzhenitsyn’s History Lesson
Knowledge of Khrushchev's reaction cited above is personal; he was the author's grandfather.
Apr 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Nina Khrushcheva
France’s Philosophe Impolitique France’s Philosophe Impolitique
Recent French philosophy has been most passionately loved and hated for its militant radicalism.
Apr 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Richard Shusterman