Borges in Another Métier Borges in Another Métier
With Pablo Neruda and Alejo Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges set in motion the wave of astonishing writing that has given Latin American literature its high place in our time.
May 13, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Jay Parini
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
Memory Hotel (It’s Haunted) Memory Hotel (It’s Haunted)
Thanks to the genius of millions, who over the generations have created our language, we may speak of the most uncanny experience in terms that suit the most common.
May 6, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
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
Lovestone’s Thin Red Line Lovestone’s Thin Red Line
Jay Lovestone is not only one of the oddest characters in the history of the American left but easily its most slippery.
May 6, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Paul Buhle
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
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
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
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
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