The Troves of Academe The Troves of Academe
"A university," poet John Ciardi acidly observed, "is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students." Add this contemporary counterpunch: A college is what a...
May 25, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Carlin Romano
A Closing of the American Kind A Closing of the American Kind
You will recall that when Augie March went to Mexico, he hooked up with an eagle, which he called Caligula.
May 11, 2000 / Books & the Arts / John Leonard
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
In Moby-Dick, in the chapter "The Fossil Whale," Ishmael proclaims: "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme." The theme of Joyce Carol Oates's Blonde--well, it'...
Apr 20, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Lawrence Joseph
Passages to India Passages to India
In the early 1920s, E.M.
Apr 5, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Amitava Kumar
Infinite Jest Infinite Jest
Dave Eggers's memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, has been a bit too loudly hyped as an ironic tearjerker, and a media juggernaut has branded its author a tragic h...
Mar 2, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Elise Harris
Stations of the Cross Stations of the Cross
Perhaps no contemporary writer has more singlemindedly mined a single vein of literary ore than E.L. Doctorow has New York City, especially the New York of the past.
Feb 23, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Melvin Jules Bukiet
Salvation in South Africa Salvation in South Africa
Blessed with a great subject, afflicted with it too, J.M. Coetzee has remade its meanings in the light of metaphor often no further from us than our own bodies.
Feb 16, 2000 / Books & the Arts / Joseph McElroy
Joseph Heller Joseph Heller
Nelson Algren's 1961 review of Catch-22 is at www.thenation.com.
Dec 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Christopher Hitchens
Algren’s Question Algren’s Question
He would hang his coat neatly over the back of his chair in the leaden station-house twilight, say he was beat from lack of sleep and lay his head across his arms upon the query-...
Dec 2, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Dan Simon