On Native Ground On Native Ground
I've long considered E.L. Doctorow the most American of contemporary writers--in a particularly classic sense.
Jun 10, 2004 / Books & the Arts / David L. Ulin
What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?
"If Bush gets re-elected, I'm moving to Canada!" Most of us who've vowed this, at one time or another, won't actually make good on our word.
Jun 2, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Kate Levin
Philosophical Convictions Philosophical Convictions
Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister--corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear.
May 27, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Richard Rorty
Come Together Come Together
There's nothing like political disaster to turn soft porn into art. What would Hiroshima, Mon Amour be without Hiroshima?
May 27, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Cristina Nehring
Description of a Struggle Description of a Struggle
"You cannot take a man who was all struggle," wrote Tolstoy of Dostoyevsky, after his great rival's death, "and set him up on a monument for the instruction of posterity."
May 27, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Tim Parks
Where the Wild Things Are Where the Wild Things Are
There's a temptation to begin with death. The dark title of A.S. Byatt's Little Black Book of Stories suggests it; the phrase is also a riposte to D.H.
May 27, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Maria Margaronis
The Maharani of Muck The Maharani of Muck
Perched elegantly on an exotic throw pillow in her seaside Bombay apartment, the Arabian Sea breeze gently ruffling her long black hair, Shobhaa De looks like one of the seductre...
May 27, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Miranda Kennedy
In America In America
If the words "first novel" and "arrival of a major American talent" appear on the front flap of a dust jacket, you can almost be sure that the picture on the back flap will depic...
Mar 25, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Philip Connors
Moses Goes Down Moses Goes Down
If upon reading the first sentence of Moses Isegawa's debut novel, Abyssinian Chronicles, in an Amsterdam bookstore a few years back, I quickly re-read it a few times and committ...
Mar 18, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Matt Steinglass
The Secret Sharer The Secret Sharer
Although the epigraph of Damon Galgut's novel is taken from Chekhov, it is the ghost of Graham Greene that hovers most palpably over The Good Doctor, and even in the cadence of i...
Mar 18, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Claire Messud