Literary Criticism

Emily Oster and the Optimization of Parenting

Emily Oster and the Optimization of Parenting Emily Oster and the Optimization of Parenting

What gets lost when we approach pregnancy and raising children through data?

Oct 29, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Anna Louie Sussman

LAPD officers on the UCLA Campus in May of this year.

The Politics of Speech on the American Campus The Politics of Speech on the American Campus

Freedom of speech on campuses has long been under attack, but now more than ever.

Oct 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Bruce Robbins

A photograph of Sylvia Plath on her grave at St Thomas A. Beckett churchyard, Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, 2011.

The Silencing of Sylvia Plath The Silencing of Sylvia Plath

In Emily Van Duyne’s Loving Sylvia Plath she asks if we can fully understand the poet’s work without understanding her abusive marriage to Ted Hughes.

Oct 8, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lynne Feeley

A crowd outside Minneapolis’s Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank during an economic crisis in May 1893.

The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance The Radical Past and Future of Debt Resistance

The deep roots of debt relief activism in the United States.

Sep 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Astra Taylor

Sally Rooney’s Open Question

Sally Rooney’s Open Question Sally Rooney’s Open Question

In Intermezzo, we get characters acting out their political commitments instead of just talking about them. But is their vision of domestic cooperation enough?

Sep 24, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jess Bergman

The Myrtle-Broadway subway station in Brooklyn, 2024.

The Rise and Fall of New York Clubbing The Rise and Fall of New York Clubbing

Emily Witt’s memoir of Brooklyn's rave scene accomplishes something that even the cynical among us cannot deny: It will make you want to go dancing.

Sep 23, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kevin Lozano

Bosses Want Us to Work in Our Sleep Now—Literally

Bosses Want Us to Work in Our Sleep Now—Literally Bosses Want Us to Work in Our Sleep Now—Literally

Molly McGhee’s satirical 2023 novel Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind may be coming true.

Sep 19, 2024 / Sophie Lewis

The Genius of Garth Greenwell

The Genius of Garth Greenwell The Genius of Garth Greenwell

Set abroad or at home, in unfamiliar worlds an ocean away or in an intensive care unit in Iowa, Greenwell's novels are songs of the self and of the United States as a whole.

Aug 28, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Hannah Gold

Buffy (Darren Robinson) of the Fat Boys in Chicago, 1985.

Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop Questlove’s Personal History of Hip-Hop

An elegiac retelling of rap's origins, Hip-Hop Is History also ends with a sense of hope.

Aug 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Bijan Stephen

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money Danzy Senna’s Acerbic Satires of Art and Money

Having gnawed away at literary and political conventions from within their hallowed forms, Senna has now set her eyes on Hollywood.

Aug 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lovia Gyarkye

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