Twenty years after publishing his first novel—years he spent establishing himself, in incisive, often fearsome essays and reviews and nonfiction books, as a leading literary–cultural critic—Pankaj Mishra had a Damascene moment of sorts. He describes it in a recent essay for . . . . Continue Reading »
Despite its flaws, Louise Penny’s latest novel is ultimately a book of fundamental human goodness. It encourages us to look at a child, as happens at a significant New Year’s Eve moment, and not see “Down syndrome,” but a person with a name—a person given for us to love. Continue Reading »
The Index of Self-Destructive Acts is the Big New York Book of the 2020s, as Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities was for the 1980s. Continue Reading »
If in due course you happen to pick up and read any of these titles, I’d love to hear back from you. Happy reading. Continue Reading »
Our editors reflect on Eugene Vodolazkin, detective fiction, Jonathan Franzen, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and Flannery O’Connor. Continue Reading »
Rooney’s decision not to publish her books in Hebrew isn’t really about Israel or its policies at all. It’s about the meaning of culture, how it should be produced and consumed, and who and what it should serve. Continue Reading »
To say that Don DeLillo dislikes television would be an understatement. He actually seems to think it’s imperiling our souls. DeLillo’s novel White Noise—which won the National Book Award in 1985 and secured his reputation as one of the best contemporary American writers—was . . . . Continue Reading »
In 1980, the soldiers of the Third Reich took Bolivia. After the huge tank battles that had brought about the final victory in Europe, South America was something more like a police operation—in fact, the conquest of the country was led not by the Wehrmacht, but by a Hauptsturmführer of the . . . . Continue Reading »
To understand the Internet you need both: Lockwood’s diptych of cloud and clarity, and Basu’s chaos mosaic. Continue Reading »
Our editors reflect on their latest reads. Continue Reading »
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