The Defiance of Cormac McCarthy’s Late Style The Defiance of Cormac McCarthy’s Late Style
In Stella Maris and The Passenger, McCarthy invites us to consider hopelessness not just to give us hope but to compel us to make use of it.
Mar 20, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Nicolás Medina Mora
Beautiful, Lonely, and Degraded: Gavin Lambert’s LA Beautiful, Lonely, and Degraded: Gavin Lambert’s LA
In his 1979 novel The Goodby People, he finds a picturesque city defined by its sense of disconnection and immense sadness.
Mar 16, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wolf
Down and Out in Paris With Rainer Maria Rilke Down and Out in Paris With Rainer Maria Rilke
In The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, the German poet’s only novel, a young artist contends with the contradictions of urban experience and the dream of pastoral life
Mar 14, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Ratik Asokan
Gwendoline Riley’s Biting Realism Gwendoline Riley’s Biting Realism
By turns bracing and comical, her novels find in everyday domestic dramas the art of life.
Mar 2, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Robert Rubsam
A Comic That Captures the Antic Energy of a Post-Truth World A Comic That Captures the Antic Energy of a Post-Truth World
A conversation with the makers of The Department of Truth, a comic series that examines the intersection of American conspiracy and Western propaganda.
Mar 1, 2023 / Books & the Arts / ML Kejera
Let Kids Read Roald Dahl’s Books the Way He Wrote Them Let Kids Read Roald Dahl’s Books the Way He Wrote Them
The beloved author’s books are being edited by their publisher to suit contemporary sensibilities. That robs us of the author’s vision—and any sense of history.
Feb 21, 2023 / Katha Pollitt
Sevgi Soysal’s Liberation of the Mind Sevgi Soysal’s Liberation of the Mind
Her novel Dawn, which documents the discontents of the 20th century Turkish left, proposes that any account of historical upheaval requires equally radical artistic methods.
Feb 13, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Shaj Mathew
The Anxious Influences of Netflix’s “White Noise” The Anxious Influences of Netflix’s “White Noise”
What has Noah Baumbach wrought in his adaptation of the 1985 postmodern novel?
Jan 25, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Vikram Murthi
The Fragile and Complex Worlds of George Saunders The Fragile and Complex Worlds of George Saunders
In his short fiction, Saunders reminds us that when it comes to ethical dilemmas there are often no clean ways out.
Jan 9, 2023 / Books & the Arts / Erin Somers
The Butler Didn’t Do It! On Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion” The Butler Didn’t Do It! On Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion”
While Knives Out was a brilliant inversion of the class politics of an Agatha Christie whodunit, the sequel wants to have it both ways.
Dec 29, 2022 / Ethan Iverson