Where Now? Let’s Go! Where Now? Let’s Go!
The nonsensical funhouse of Donald Barthelme's fiction celebrates the cosmic joke of life and the pathos of grappling with it.
Apr 9, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Joanna Scott
Seems Like Old Times Seems Like Old Times
This week's episode: Dieter Countryman reminisces about the good ol' days of selling the first Gulf War; Connie Waller gets his freak on in Vegas.
Apr 7, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Gary Phillips
Internal Combustion Internal Combustion
Could Russell Banks be retooling himself as a fabulist?
Mar 27, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Melissa Holbrook Pierson
A Garden of Monsters A Garden of Monsters
The imaginary fascists in Roberto Bolaño's ironic encyclopedia Nazi Literature in the Americas bear a complex relationship to reality.
Mar 13, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Carmen Boullosa
Foes Foes
J.M. Coetzee, now out with a new novel and a collection of essays, reminds us what a master he is at turning life into narrative.
Feb 7, 2008 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
The Dot Matrix The Dot Matrix
In I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, novelist Sinan Antoon explores themes of love, loss, identity and resistance in the face of political oppression.
Jan 3, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Laila Lalami
Fly Papers Fly Papers
An English translation of Lydie Salvayre's The Power of Flies demonstrates how this novelist and practicing psychiatrist has earned more nervous respect than love in France.
Jan 3, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Lorna Scott Fox
Car Talk Car Talk
A mock-heroic travelogue by Julio Cortázar and his wife captures the contemplative life on the road.
Dec 20, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Colin Fleming
Memorable Gestures Memorable Gestures
Michael Ondaatje shows off his trademark narrative tricks in his new novel Divisadero, but the magic is wearing thin.
Dec 13, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Tony Eprile
Many Exits Many Exits
Philip Roth's Exit Ghost considers whether we're astonished by death or the life that precedes it.
Nov 21, 2007 / Books & the Arts / Matt Weiland