Letters From the December 19-26, 2016, Issue Letters From the December 19-26, 2016, Issue
Return of the repressed… Book therapy… Happily enough ever after… Dylan revisited… Bentham’s revenge…
Dec 1, 2016 / Our Readers and Samuel Moyn
The Personal Is Political, But Not Always Fictional The Personal Is Political, But Not Always Fictional
What is the novelist Intizar Husain’s theory of Pakistani history?
Nov 19, 2016 / Ratik Asokan
Criticism in the Twilight Criticism in the Twilight
What role can the critic play in today’s uncertain times?
Nov 16, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Nicholas Dames
Leopoldine Core’s Concrete Jungle Leopoldine Core’s Concrete Jungle
In her new collection, Core evidences a serious concern not just with what happens in a story, but also where it occurs.
Sep 30, 2016 / Alina Cohen
A Poet Undone A Poet Undone
Poetry defeats poems. Beguiled by this decorous paradox, Ben Lerner’s The Hatred of Poetry evades the art’s difficulty and strangeness.
Sep 22, 2016 / Books & the Arts / John Palattella
Several Types of William Empson Several Types of William Empson
A lost study of Buddhist art reveals a hidden side of a great literary critic.
Sep 6, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Chenxin Jiang
An Argentinian Novelist, Out of Oblivion An Argentinian Novelist, Out of Oblivion
Exile, failure, the dread of erasure: Antonio Di Benedetto seems to have transmuted all his life experiences into his novel Zama, which has finally been translated into English.
Aug 23, 2016 / Ratik Asokan
Leaving Home to Go Home Leaving Home to Go Home
Yaa Gyasi’s ideas about fiction are suffused with her lifelong attention to the fluctuating shadows that race casts on American life.
Aug 12, 2016 / Erin Vanderhoof
What Breeds in ‘Standing Water’ What Breeds in ‘Standing Water’
Eleanor Chai’s poems require delving below the surface of each compact, enjambment-packed stanza, forcing the reader through a process of discovery not unlike Chai’s own origin sto...
Jul 29, 2016 / Larissa Pham
Jesse Ball’s Extreme Minimalism Jesse Ball’s Extreme Minimalism
His settings are dark, sketchy, and unrealistic by dint of what’s held back.
Jul 28, 2016 / Sasha Chapin