Adler’s Way Adler’s Way
The slowly panic-making power of Renata Adler’s novels Speedboat and Pitch Dark.
May 15, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz
Adventures in Neurohumanities Adventures in Neurohumanities
Applying neuroscience to the study of literature is fashionable. But is it the best way to read a novel?
May 8, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Alissa Quart
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Nikolai Leskov’s The Enchanted Wandered and Other Stories; Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself...
Apr 30, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Alexandra Schwartz
The Strange Arcane: On George Saunders The Strange Arcane: On George Saunders
In the short stories of Tenth of December, the impression of chaos belies a careful design.
Mar 20, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier
Darkness Lit From Within: On A.B. Yehoshua Darkness Lit From Within: On A.B. Yehoshua
The soul-destroying weariness in A.B. Yehoshua’s stories seems as old as time itself—and unique to contemporary Israel.
Mar 6, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Vivian Gornick
Making Strange: On Victor Shklovsky Making Strange: On Victor Shklovsky
A Russian novelist’s fight, in life and art, to see the world afresh in all its cruelty and splendor.
Feb 5, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Ben Ehrenreich
Safety Net: On Thomas Bernhard and Siegfried Unseld Safety Net: On Thomas Bernhard and Siegfried Unseld
In his writing and life, Thomas Bernhard led a charge in the opposite direction. His publisher always broke his fall.
Jan 30, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Holly Case
No Man Is an Island: Fiction, Trauma, War No Man Is an Island: Fiction, Trauma, War
How Argentine fiction about the Malvinas War conspires in a trick of perspective.
Jan 9, 2013 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Blitzer
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Ayana Mathis’s The Twelve Tribes of Hattie; Andrey Platonov’s Happy Moscow
Dec 31, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier
Suspicious Minds: On Timothy Melley Suspicious Minds: On Timothy Melley
How thrillers inform spycraft, and the fictions that belie them both.
Dec 19, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Peter C. Baker