Puttin’ on the Glitz: José Manuel Prieto’s Rex Puttin’ on the Glitz: José Manuel Prieto’s Rex
Set in the glossiest of sanctuaries, Rex is a complicated and dazzling indictment of contemporary fiction.
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Natasha Wimmer
The Kundera Conundrum: Kundera, Respekt and Contempt The Kundera Conundrum: Kundera, Respekt and Contempt
How did Milan Kundera's antipathy toward the media become as curdled as the Czechs' allergy to his success?
May 20, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Jana Prikryl
Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Into the Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis’s Narnia
Laura Miller's study of C.S. Lewis falls short of providing a coherent theory of Narnia's magic.
May 6, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Jordan Davis
A Vigorous, Quiet Revolt: Things Fall Apart At Fifty A Vigorous, Quiet Revolt: Things Fall Apart At Fifty
Published fifty years ago, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart mounted a literary rebellion against the everyday amalgamations and condescension that treat Africa as an undiffere...
May 4, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Howard W. French
When the Whip Comes Down: On Mary Gaitskill When the Whip Comes Down: On Mary Gaitskill
With Don't Cry, a disabling self-consciousness has crept into Mary Gaitskill's fiction.
Apr 22, 2009 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
A Tough Flower Girl: On Norman Maclean A Tough Flower Girl: On Norman Maclean
In Norman Maclean's stories, tragedy comes garlanded in a prose style nearly unsurpassed for its bright flashes of remembrance, its whispers out of time.
Mar 11, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Philip Connors
A Nazi Zelig: Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones A Nazi Zelig: Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones
The Kindly Ones, Jonathan Littell's fictive memoir of a Nazi SS officer, is intentionally sickening and an unquestionably brilliant success.
Mar 5, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Samuel Moyn
Schlepics: The Fiction of Angel Wagenstein Schlepics: The Fiction of Angel Wagenstein
Angel Wagenstein and the evolution of modern Jewish storytelling.
Jan 28, 2009 / Books & the Arts / Akiva Gottlieb
Back Talk: Jill Lepore and Jane Kamensky Back Talk: Jill Lepore and Jane Kamensky
Jill Lepore and Jane Kamensky talk about how they wrote the occasionally racy historical novel Blindspot.
Jan 15, 2009 / Back Talk Conversations / Christine Smallwood
Partisans of Oblivion: A Situationist Novel Partisans of Oblivion: A Situationist Novel
Michèle Bernstein's Situationist novel explores a Paris hovering between Old World and New Wave.
Dec 17, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Clover