Fiction

I’m Nobody, Who Are You? On Zadie Smith’s ‘NW’ I’m Nobody, Who Are You? On Zadie Smith’s ‘NW’

If you get to the top, only to find that the voice hounding you with charges of inauthenticity is your own, what then?

Nov 20, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz

The Letters of Kurt Vonnegut The Letters of Kurt Vonnegut

Says editor Dan Wakefield, hIs writing “is done with such seemingly simple language and style that it sometimes seems shocking.”

Oct 31, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Kurt Vonnegut

Singularly Adaptable: On Alain Mabanckou

Singularly Adaptable: On Alain Mabanckou Singularly Adaptable: On Alain Mabanckou

In Black Bazaar, characters vent and stumble over their shared obsession with the colonial past.

Oct 30, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier

The Master’s Servants: On Henry James

The Master’s Servants: On Henry James The Master’s Servants: On Henry James

Nothing ages faster than the idea of an “ageless” writer. Consider the posthumous career of Henry James.

Oct 23, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Leo Robson

Uninvisible: On Dorothy B. Hughes Uninvisible: On Dorothy B. Hughes

In The Expendable Man, the story of an innocent under suspicion is given a racial twist.

Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor

Shelf Life Shelf Life

A.M. Homes’s May We Be Forgiven; Sherman Alexie’s Blasphemy.

Oct 10, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier

Shelf Life Shelf Life

Maureen F. McHugh's After the Apocalypse; Joshua Cohen's Four New Messages

Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier

Ghosts and Machines: On Anne Tyler and Peter Carey

Ghosts and Machines: On Anne Tyler and Peter Carey Ghosts and Machines: On Anne Tyler and Peter Carey

The Beginner’s Goodbye, The Chemistry of Tears and the burden of inheritance.

Jun 5, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Leo Robson

Extreme Indolence: On the Fiction of Albert Cossery

Extreme Indolence: On the Fiction of Albert Cossery Extreme Indolence: On the Fiction of Albert Cossery

For Albert Cossery, the world is split between those who respect a cause and those who don’t give a tinker's damn.

May 22, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Mark Polizzotti

Blind Spot: On Christa Wolf

Blind Spot: On Christa Wolf Blind Spot: On Christa Wolf

A postwar German novelist’s complicated legacy.

May 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Holly Case

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