The Model of Perfection in Morgan Parker’s Poems The Model of Perfection in Morgan Parker’s Poems
The poet allows the struggles and the messiness of life—with a particular focus on black womanhood—to breathe.
Mar 17, 2017 / Books & the Arts / Christopher Soto
Sarah Manguso’s Existential Aphorisms Sarah Manguso’s Existential Aphorisms
In 300 Arguments, the author’s rejection of the conventions of storytelling helps reinforce the sense of her own smallness.
Mar 16, 2017 / Michele Moses
Sick for Home, Nauseated by Home Sick for Home, Nauseated by Home
The lens of Ottessa Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World is, almost without exception, fitted close-up on conversations, petty rumination, and squalid interiors.
Feb 14, 2017 / Hannah Gold
A Catalog of Cadavers A Catalog of Cadavers
Claudia Salazar Jiménez sets out to conjure the experience of atrocity in Peru with her debut novel, Blood of the Dawn. The result is disquieting—though not in the way you’d e...
Dec 30, 2016 / Ratik Asokan
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 / Letters / 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