Black American in Paris Black American in Paris
In the spring of 1960, the year of his death, the novelist Richard Wright wrote from Paris to his friend and Dutch translator Margrit de Sablonière:
Sep 9, 2004 / Books & the Arts / James Campbell
Laughter in the Dark Laughter in the Dark
Stalin has had a rough time at the hands of Russian novelists in recent years.
Jul 15, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Boris Fishman
What Are They Reading? What Are They Reading?
It's the first three chapters of Yuri Olesha's Envy that really bite, that really get across the impotent sting of the emotion.
Jul 1, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Nicholas Jahr
Scenes From a Marriage Scenes From a Marriage
Conventional wisdom suggests Israelis and Palestinians are bitter enemies: two sides mired in a century-long conflict marked by violence, hatred and an unbounded reservoir of bru...
Jun 17, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Jonathan Shainin
Le Gai Savoir Le Gai Savoir
"Paris is a very old story," Henry James wrote in 1878--so old, in fact, that it's hard to write about it without falling into clichés about chestnut trees, couture, freed...
Jun 10, 2004 / Books & the Arts / Brenda Wineapple
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