Vacant, Limpid, Angelic: On Willem de Kooning Vacant, Limpid, Angelic: On Willem de Kooning
MoMA’s de Kooning retrospective.
Oct 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
In the Clear: On Scientology In the Clear: On Scientology
The body of the church of Scientology is not well. Will its main legacy be its contribution to US tax law?
Oct 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Mark Oppenheimer
The Edge of Comprehension: On Steven Millhauser The Edge of Comprehension: On Steven Millhauser
With We Others, Steven Millhauser remains the master of the inevitable ending in American fiction.
Oct 18, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier
The Far Right Contemplates the Republican Front-Runner The Far Right Contemplates the Republican Front-Runner
It seems that now we’re stuck with Mitt. Reciting right-wing holy writ, He still sounds moderate, a bit. Although it’s nothing he’ll admit, A healthcare plan’s his biggest hit. (The thought of that gives us a fit.) And born-agains, from where they sit, Still state their firm belief, to wit: As Christians, Mormons aren’t legit. We’ve said for months, “This man’s not it.” We wish that Palin hadn’t split. We wish that Perry weren’t a nit (His pilot light is not quite lit). Because, it seems, we’re stuck with Mitt.
Oct 12, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin
Gandhi and South Africa Gandhi and South Africa
Why was Joseph Lelyveld’s history of Gandhi’s years in South Africa attacked by India’s Hindu right?
Oct 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Martha C. Nussbaum
Innocents Lost: On Postwar Orphans Innocents Lost: On Postwar Orphans
Tara Zahra explains why orphaned children held a special grip on Europe’s postwar imagination.
Oct 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Holly Case
Letter From a Prisoner Letter From a Prisoner
You, who only write letters in your dreams Hello mother! your son now engraves in his heart letters to send you he would like to send you a snail loving the ground passionately he would like to print burning kisses everywhere, where your steps take you he would like to send you a snail to read your poems on the sand to gather them in a shell and send them to the sea this sea whose azure you share where she rests Hello mother! Have you received the snail? (translated from the French by Doog T. Wood)
Oct 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Abdallah Zrika
Disciplined Filth Disciplined Filth
George Clooney’s The Ides of March, Danfung Dennis’s Hell and Back Again, Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez’s You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days In...
Oct 11, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
CEO CEO
Hewlett-Packard CEO, fired after disastrous eleven-month reign, gets $13 million in termination benefits. —news reports One job’s a job I never would forgo. That job, of course, is being CEO. According to the customs now prevailing, It pays a lot—and pays you more for failing. It must be nice to have a job wherein You cannot lose, for if you lose you win.
Oct 5, 2011 / Column / Calvin Trillin
The Wrong Moral Revolution: On Michael Barnett The Wrong Moral Revolution: On Michael Barnett
To see humanitarianism everywhere is not to see it at all.
Oct 5, 2011 / Books & the Arts / David Rieff