The Uncertainty Principle The Uncertainty Principle
By writing a novel about a conventional novelist writing about a conventional man, J.M. Coetzee's latest work illuminates the role of the novel and cuts through typical and tired t...
Oct 26, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Pankaj Mishra
Another Country Another Country
Chronicling the final, devastating months of the Civil War, E.L. Doctorow's new novel, The March, reveals the author's complex love for an earlier version of America.
Oct 12, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Vince Passaro
Frontier Injustice Frontier Injustice
In Andrew Jackson: A Life and Times, the frontier president is cast as a one-man beacon for democracy. But Jackson's core belief was a fervent defense of land.
Oct 12, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Anatol Lieven
Rearranging the Furniture Rearranging the Furniture
For prose scholar Viktor Shklovsky, who lived by the code of style and studied its depths, an unhappy love affair can be as much a personal tragedy as a plot device for more writin...
Oct 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Elif Batuman
A Hero for Our Time A Hero for Our Time
Critics have been trumpeting Benjamin Kunkel as the voice of his generation. But his first novel, Indecision, about a 28-year-old empty vessel, is little more than an empty vessel...
Oct 6, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Mark Lotto
The Blank Verses The Blank Verses
A Rick Moody novel is generally about one thing and that is Rick Moody's ability to write very long, occasionally graceful sentences.
Sep 22, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Christine Smallwood
Rushdie’s Receding Talent Rushdie’s Receding Talent
It has almost become a sadness to review a novel by Salman Rushdie. Shalimar the Clown is no exception.
Sep 15, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Lee Siegel
Zadie Smith’s Indecision Zadie Smith’s Indecision
It can't be easy to rein in a writer as successful as Zadie Smith. Her new novel, On Beauty, proves it's almost impossible.
Sep 15, 2005 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Love and Betrayal in Colonial Africa Love and Betrayal in Colonial Africa
Abdulrazak Gurnah's seventh book, Desertion, revisits the theme of exile and expands it to relationships---between lovers, between families, between countries.
Sep 8, 2005 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami
It’s a Man’s, Man’s World It’s a Man’s, Man’s World
Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men seems designed as a calculated assault on the reader.
Aug 25, 2005 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz