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Articles
Kafka’s Trials
The Diaries of Franz Kafkatranslated by ross benjaminschocken, 704 pages, $45 The job of a translator is both difficult and one of great responsibility. An author can be utterly...
Houellebecq’s Omelette
Anéantirby michel houellebecqflammarion, 736 pages, $29 As Chekhov conveyed boredom without being boring, so Michel Houellebecq conveys meaninglessness without being meaningless. Indeed, his particular subject is the spiritual, intellectual,...
What Happened in the French Election
When a man who is widely disliked or even hated wins a political election by a crushing majority, there are two possibilities: Either the electorate is sufficiently mature to...
The Fall of Dr. Raoult
Nothing stimulates the emergence of a guru like a crisis, especially one to which the correct response is far from clear. People want simple, reassuring answers. They eagerly suspend...
Catastrophism and Control
Épidémies: vrais dangers et fausses alertesby didier raoult michel lafon, 160 pages, €8.99 The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread—and Why They Stopby adam kucharski basic, 352 pages, $30...
Identity as Ideology
Like many persons possessing limited insight into the future, I had supposed that, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, utopianism would die out in the Western world. I...
France Fractured
L’archipel français: naissance d’une nation multiple et diviséeby jérôme fourquet le seuil, 384 pages, 22€ Living between Britain and France, I am often surprised by how little each country...
Crimes in Concrete
Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarismby james stevens curloxford, 592 pages, $60 In a recent debate in Prospect magazine on the question of whether modern architecture has...
Letter to an Aspiring Doctor
You tell me you are thinking, my dear Stephen, of medicine as a career, but you wonder whether you have the ability or the temperament for it. You say...
Rare and Common Sense
Simon Leys: Navigator Between Worldsby philippe paquettranslated by julie rosela trobe, 720 pages, $59.99 It is a curious fact that Communist dictatorships were at their most popular among Western...
The Necessity of Judgment
Montaigne: A Lifeby philippe desantranslated by steven rendall and lisa nealprinceton, 832 pages, $39.95 When faced with a biography that could as well stop a door as fill a...
The Brothers Grim
Hitch-22 by christopher hitchens twelve, 448 pages, $26 The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith by peter hitchenszondervan, 224 pages, $22 Anyone with a sibling knows that a...
