Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-3 July-September
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2featherbear
NYRB Online July 20 2023
Literature
Joyce Carol Oates. None-Too-Gay Divorcées. Review of: Ex-Wife / Ursula Parrott, with a foreword by Alissa Bennett and an afterword by Marc Parrott -- Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott / Marsha Gordon.
Laura Marsh. The Pregnancy Plot. Review of: Reproduction / Louisa Hall.
Adam Thirlwall. The Trouble with Truth. Review of: Yoga / Emmanuel Carrère, translated from the French by John Lambert.
Darryl Pinckney. Black Talk on the Move. Review of: Lover Man / Alston Anderson, with an afterword by Kinohi Nishikawa.
Anahid Nersessian. The Republic of Translation. Review of: Historiae / Antonella Anedda, translated from the Italian and the Sardinian by Patrizio Ceccagnoli and Susan Stewart -- Common Life / Stéphane Bouquet, translated from the French by Lindsay Turner
Kerri Arsenault. Vacationland. Review of: Night of the Living Rez / Morgan Talty.
James Walton. The Hemon Variations. Review of: The World and All That It Holds / Aleksandar Hemon.
Gabriel Winslow-Yost. ‘This Is Not Your Grave.’ Review of: Acting Class / Nick Drnaso -- Men I Trust / Tommi Parrish.
Arts
Carolina A. Miranda. ‘Places That Weren’t Supposed to Be Places’. Review of: no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, November 23, 2022–April 23, 2023; Catalog of the exhibition edited by Marcela Guerrero -- Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, November 19, 2022–April 23, 2023; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, October 5, 2023–February 24, 2024; and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, April 6–July 8, 2024; Catalog of the exhibition edited by Carla Acevedo-Yates -- Tropical Is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime an exhibition at the Americas Society, New York City, September 7–December 17, 2022; and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, February 18–July 30, 2023; Catalog of the exhibition edited by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Karen Marta.
Ruth Bernard Yeazell. Life Made Light. Review of: Vermeer, an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, February 10–June 4, 2023; catalog of the exhibition edited by Pieter Roelofs and Gregor J.M. Weber -- Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection / Gregor J.M. Weber -- Vermeer and the Art of Love / Aneta Georgievska-Shine.
Politics
Jeffrey Toobin. Keeping Speech Robust and Free. (Essay: "The case of New York Times v. Sullivan set a vital standard in libel law. Could the clash between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems dismantle it—and at what cost?")
Fintan O'Toole. Unrepentant Pence. "Mike Pence’s religiosity may be entirely sincere, but it is also instrumental and highly politicized. He, like Trump, is in show business."
Obituaries
Daniel Mendelsohn. Robert Gottlieb (1931–2023).
Martin Filler. 06/30/2023: Poet of Shubert Alley. "The late Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick, in Fiddler on the Roof and above all She Loves Me, gave the musical comedy a rare insight, poetic delicacy, and emotional intimacy. "
Literature
Joyce Carol Oates. None-Too-Gay Divorcées. Review of: Ex-Wife / Ursula Parrott, with a foreword by Alissa Bennett and an afterword by Marc Parrott -- Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott / Marsha Gordon.
Laura Marsh. The Pregnancy Plot. Review of: Reproduction / Louisa Hall.
Adam Thirlwall. The Trouble with Truth. Review of: Yoga / Emmanuel Carrère, translated from the French by John Lambert.
Darryl Pinckney. Black Talk on the Move. Review of: Lover Man / Alston Anderson, with an afterword by Kinohi Nishikawa.
Anahid Nersessian. The Republic of Translation. Review of: Historiae / Antonella Anedda, translated from the Italian and the Sardinian by Patrizio Ceccagnoli and Susan Stewart -- Common Life / Stéphane Bouquet, translated from the French by Lindsay Turner
Kerri Arsenault. Vacationland. Review of: Night of the Living Rez / Morgan Talty.
James Walton. The Hemon Variations. Review of: The World and All That It Holds / Aleksandar Hemon.
Gabriel Winslow-Yost. ‘This Is Not Your Grave.’ Review of: Acting Class / Nick Drnaso -- Men I Trust / Tommi Parrish.
Arts
Carolina A. Miranda. ‘Places That Weren’t Supposed to Be Places’. Review of: no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, November 23, 2022–April 23, 2023; Catalog of the exhibition edited by Marcela Guerrero -- Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, November 19, 2022–April 23, 2023; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, October 5, 2023–February 24, 2024; and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, April 6–July 8, 2024; Catalog of the exhibition edited by Carla Acevedo-Yates -- Tropical Is Political: Caribbean Art Under the Visitor Economy Regime an exhibition at the Americas Society, New York City, September 7–December 17, 2022; and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, San Juan, February 18–July 30, 2023; Catalog of the exhibition edited by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Karen Marta.
Ruth Bernard Yeazell. Life Made Light. Review of: Vermeer, an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, February 10–June 4, 2023; catalog of the exhibition edited by Pieter Roelofs and Gregor J.M. Weber -- Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection / Gregor J.M. Weber -- Vermeer and the Art of Love / Aneta Georgievska-Shine.
Politics
Jeffrey Toobin. Keeping Speech Robust and Free. (Essay: "The case of New York Times v. Sullivan set a vital standard in libel law. Could the clash between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems dismantle it—and at what cost?")
Fintan O'Toole. Unrepentant Pence. "Mike Pence’s religiosity may be entirely sincere, but it is also instrumental and highly politicized. He, like Trump, is in show business."
Obituaries
Daniel Mendelsohn. Robert Gottlieb (1931–2023).
Martin Filler. 06/30/2023: Poet of Shubert Alley. "The late Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick, in Fiddler on the Roof and above all She Loves Me, gave the musical comedy a rare insight, poetic delicacy, and emotional intimacy. "
3featherbear
Recently from The New Yorker:
Zadie Smith. 07/03/2023 (7/10-17 print issue). On Killing Charles Dickens. (On the anxiety of influence)
Parul Sehgal. 07/03/2023 (7/10-17 print issue). The Tyranny of the Tale.
Françoise Mouly and Genevieve Bormes; Art by Bill Griffith. 07/03/2023: For the Love of Comics: Bill Griffith Takes On the Iconic Nancy.
Zadie Smith. 07/03/2023 (7/10-17 print issue). On Killing Charles Dickens. (On the anxiety of influence)
Parul Sehgal. 07/03/2023 (7/10-17 print issue). The Tyranny of the Tale.
Françoise Mouly and Genevieve Bormes; Art by Bill Griffith. 07/03/2023: For the Love of Comics: Bill Griffith Takes On the Iconic Nancy.
4featherbear
Grayson Scott. Baffler, 07/03/2023: Drone Realism. Review of: Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey through the Deep State / Kerry Howley.
5featherbear
Julian Lucas. New Yorker, 07/03/2023: How Samuel R. Delany Reimagined Sci-Fi, Sex, and the City.
6featherbear
Thalia Williamson. LARB, 07/05/2023: Technology, Attention, and the Extremely Long Paragraph. On Thomas Bernhard's technique.
7featherbear
TLS July 7, 2023|No. 6275
Featured
A.E. Stallings. Praise singers: British and American poets laureate. Review of: Sleeping on Islands: A life in poetry / Andrew Motion -- The American Poet Laureate: A history of US poetry and the state / Amy Paeth.
Caroline Moorehead. Beyond the annex: Was Anne Frank betrayed by her own friendship circle?. Review of: My Friend Anne Frank / Hannah Pick-Goslar, with Dina Kraft -- The Last Secret of the Secret Annex / Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn.
Emily Jones. Whose sovereignty?: The battle between executive and parliament for the ownership of Brexit. Review of: The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit / Meg Russell and Lisa James -- Inside the Deal: How the EU got Brexit done / Stefaan De Rynck -- The Failure of Remain: Anti-Brexit activism in the United Kingdom / Adam Fagan and Stijn van Kessel -- Taking Control: Sovereignty and democracy after Brexit / Philip Cunliffe et al.
Druin Burch. Good in parts: Why the National Health Service has always been in crisis. Review of: Fighting for Life: The twelve battles that made our NHS, and the struggle for its future / Isabel Hardman -- Side Effects: How our healthcare lost its way / David Haslam -- What Is a Doctor?: A GP’s prescription for the future / Phil Whitaker -- Sick Note: A history of the British welfare state / Gareth Millward.
Literature
Corin Thorsby. You’re over-sharing, Mr Hazlitt: The temptation for Romantic writers to tip into over-familiarity. Review of: The Limits of Familiarity: Authorship and Romantic readers / Lindsey Eckert.
Margaret Drabble. Bullies and rotters: It’s tough being a literary wife. Review of: Lives of the Wives: Five literary marriages / Carmela Ciuraru.
Michael Caines. By their own hands: Japanese novels of self-portraiture and self-erasure. Review of: Kappa / Ryūnosuke Akutagawa; translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda and Allison Markin Powell -- The Flowers of Buffoonery / Osamu Dazai; translated by Sam Bett.
Jude Cook. Politics, profit, dust and smoke: French greed in Indochina. Review of: An Honourable Exit / Éric Vuillard; translated by Mark Polizzotti.
Alex Clark. Slouching Sixties: Acid, Spam and bad wine during England’s era of upheaval. Review of: Sanderson's Isle / James Clarke.
John Burnside. Troubled waters: The fallout from a 1960s oil spill. Review of: The Black Eden / Richard T. Kelly.
Claire Kohda. Wounds I never knew I had: Empathy and pain in the British-Vietnamese diaspora. Review of: Wandering Souls / Cecile Pin.
Anna Aslanyan. Where the morons are: A comical translation from the Russian by Anthony Burgess. Review of Chatsky, and Miser, Miser! by Alexander Griboyedov, translated & adapted by Anthony Burgess, edited by Andrew Biswell.
Geoff Sawers. In a minor key: Remembering the life and work of Dorothy Edwards. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Down With the Poor! / Shumona Sinha; translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan.
In Brief Review of: Paris, boulevard Voltaire, suivi de Ponts / Michèle Audin.
In Brief Review of: Dastram = Delirium: Selected poems of Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir / Translated by Taylor Strickland.
Arts
Irina Dumitrescu. Echoes of Eco in his library: A portrait of the writer through his books. Review of the documentary film Umberto Eco: a Library of the World.
Adam Mars-Jones. Appearances deceive: Isabelle Huppert brings a lifetime’s acting to bear in a real-life story. Review of the film La Syndicaliste, directed & co-written by Jean-Paul Salomé.
Georgie Carr. Jumpy and nasty and punky: Marriage and the German economic miracle seen through Fassbinder’s eyes. Review of: Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors / Ian Penman.
Michael Caines. Wicked witchcraft: The transfer of the National Theatre’s production of The Crucible to the West End. Review of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Gielgud Theatre, London, until September 2.
In Brief Review of: Maybe We'll Make It / Margo Price.
History, Politics, & Society
Wendy Moore. A long dark corridor: The ‘looming catastrophe of care.’ Review of: Who Cares: The hidden crisis of caregiving, and how we solve it / Emily Kenway.
Regina Rini. Your attention, please!: Life in a world of distractions. (Essay)
Axel Stähler. Strangers in the midst of Europe: The invention of the Gypsies. Review of: Europe and the Roma: A history of fascination and fear / Klaus-Michael Bogdal; translated by Jefferson Chase.
Ian Ellison. Through laughter and tears: The lighter side of the proud Castilian. Review of: The Aesthetics of Melancholia: Medical and spiritual diseases in medieval Iberia / Luis F. López Gonzále -- Spanish Laughter: Humour and its sense in modern Spain / Antonio Calvo Maturana, editor.
Joanna Bourke. Sisters in arms: The history of female combatants from ancient times to the present. Review of: Forgotten Warriors: a history of women on the front line / Sarah Percy.
Anne Kennedy Smith. Moors and mines, Petrock and Piran: What it means to be Cornish. Review of: The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish journey / Tim Hannigan -- Treasures of Cornwall:
A literary anthology / Luke Thompson.
In Brief Review of: Memory Makers: The politics of the past in Putin’s Russia / Jade McGlynn.
In Brief Review of: The Art of Binding People / Paolo Milone; translated by Lucy Rand.
Featured
A.E. Stallings. Praise singers: British and American poets laureate. Review of: Sleeping on Islands: A life in poetry / Andrew Motion -- The American Poet Laureate: A history of US poetry and the state / Amy Paeth.
Caroline Moorehead. Beyond the annex: Was Anne Frank betrayed by her own friendship circle?. Review of: My Friend Anne Frank / Hannah Pick-Goslar, with Dina Kraft -- The Last Secret of the Secret Annex / Joop van Wijk-Voskuijl and Jeroen De Bruyn.
Emily Jones. Whose sovereignty?: The battle between executive and parliament for the ownership of Brexit. Review of: The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit / Meg Russell and Lisa James -- Inside the Deal: How the EU got Brexit done / Stefaan De Rynck -- The Failure of Remain: Anti-Brexit activism in the United Kingdom / Adam Fagan and Stijn van Kessel -- Taking Control: Sovereignty and democracy after Brexit / Philip Cunliffe et al.
Druin Burch. Good in parts: Why the National Health Service has always been in crisis. Review of: Fighting for Life: The twelve battles that made our NHS, and the struggle for its future / Isabel Hardman -- Side Effects: How our healthcare lost its way / David Haslam -- What Is a Doctor?: A GP’s prescription for the future / Phil Whitaker -- Sick Note: A history of the British welfare state / Gareth Millward.
Literature
Corin Thorsby. You’re over-sharing, Mr Hazlitt: The temptation for Romantic writers to tip into over-familiarity. Review of: The Limits of Familiarity: Authorship and Romantic readers / Lindsey Eckert.
Margaret Drabble. Bullies and rotters: It’s tough being a literary wife. Review of: Lives of the Wives: Five literary marriages / Carmela Ciuraru.
Michael Caines. By their own hands: Japanese novels of self-portraiture and self-erasure. Review of: Kappa / Ryūnosuke Akutagawa; translated by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda and Allison Markin Powell -- The Flowers of Buffoonery / Osamu Dazai; translated by Sam Bett.
Jude Cook. Politics, profit, dust and smoke: French greed in Indochina. Review of: An Honourable Exit / Éric Vuillard; translated by Mark Polizzotti.
Alex Clark. Slouching Sixties: Acid, Spam and bad wine during England’s era of upheaval. Review of: Sanderson's Isle / James Clarke.
John Burnside. Troubled waters: The fallout from a 1960s oil spill. Review of: The Black Eden / Richard T. Kelly.
Claire Kohda. Wounds I never knew I had: Empathy and pain in the British-Vietnamese diaspora. Review of: Wandering Souls / Cecile Pin.
Anna Aslanyan. Where the morons are: A comical translation from the Russian by Anthony Burgess. Review of Chatsky, and Miser, Miser! by Alexander Griboyedov, translated & adapted by Anthony Burgess, edited by Andrew Biswell.
Geoff Sawers. In a minor key: Remembering the life and work of Dorothy Edwards. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Down With the Poor! / Shumona Sinha; translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan.
In Brief Review of: Paris, boulevard Voltaire, suivi de Ponts / Michèle Audin.
In Brief Review of: Dastram = Delirium: Selected poems of Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir / Translated by Taylor Strickland.
Arts
Irina Dumitrescu. Echoes of Eco in his library: A portrait of the writer through his books. Review of the documentary film Umberto Eco: a Library of the World.
Adam Mars-Jones. Appearances deceive: Isabelle Huppert brings a lifetime’s acting to bear in a real-life story. Review of the film La Syndicaliste, directed & co-written by Jean-Paul Salomé.
Georgie Carr. Jumpy and nasty and punky: Marriage and the German economic miracle seen through Fassbinder’s eyes. Review of: Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors / Ian Penman.
Michael Caines. Wicked witchcraft: The transfer of the National Theatre’s production of The Crucible to the West End. Review of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Gielgud Theatre, London, until September 2.
In Brief Review of: Maybe We'll Make It / Margo Price.
History, Politics, & Society
Wendy Moore. A long dark corridor: The ‘looming catastrophe of care.’ Review of: Who Cares: The hidden crisis of caregiving, and how we solve it / Emily Kenway.
Regina Rini. Your attention, please!: Life in a world of distractions. (Essay)
Axel Stähler. Strangers in the midst of Europe: The invention of the Gypsies. Review of: Europe and the Roma: A history of fascination and fear / Klaus-Michael Bogdal; translated by Jefferson Chase.
Ian Ellison. Through laughter and tears: The lighter side of the proud Castilian. Review of: The Aesthetics of Melancholia: Medical and spiritual diseases in medieval Iberia / Luis F. López Gonzále -- Spanish Laughter: Humour and its sense in modern Spain / Antonio Calvo Maturana, editor.
Joanna Bourke. Sisters in arms: The history of female combatants from ancient times to the present. Review of: Forgotten Warriors: a history of women on the front line / Sarah Percy.
Anne Kennedy Smith. Moors and mines, Petrock and Piran: What it means to be Cornish. Review of: The Granite Kingdom: A Cornish journey / Tim Hannigan -- Treasures of Cornwall:
A literary anthology / Luke Thompson.
In Brief Review of: Memory Makers: The politics of the past in Putin’s Russia / Jade McGlynn.
In Brief Review of: The Art of Binding People / Paolo Milone; translated by Lucy Rand.
8featherbear
"The Japanese novelist Osamu Dazai wrote, better than almost anyone, about the thin line between isolation and belonging."
Jane Yong Kim. The Atlantic, 07/06/2023: The Cult Classic That Captures the Stress of Social Alienation.
Jane Yong Kim. The Atlantic, 07/06/2023: The Cult Classic That Captures the Stress of Social Alienation.
9featherbear
John Plotz. Public Books, 07/06/2023: B-Sides: Georges Perec's W, or the Memory of Childhood.
10featherbear
Bruce Fulton, interviewed by Cal Flynn. fivebooks.com, 07/07/2023: The Best Korean Novels recommended by Bruce Fulton. (He seems to be promoting his own translations or he's cornered the translation market)
Fulton is the editor of The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories. Recommendations: Hwang Chini / Hong Sŏkchung (still in the process of being translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton; the interview includes a link to an excerpt -- The Guest / Hwang Sok-Yong, translated by Kyung-Ja Chun and Maya West -- The Dwarf / Cho Se-hǔi ; translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton -- One Left: A Novel / Kim Soom ; translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton -- Togani: a novel (Modern Korean Fiction) / Ji-young Gong; translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton.
Fulton is the editor of The Penguin Book of Korean Short Stories. Recommendations: Hwang Chini / Hong Sŏkchung (still in the process of being translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton; the interview includes a link to an excerpt -- The Guest / Hwang Sok-Yong, translated by Kyung-Ja Chun and Maya West -- The Dwarf / Cho Se-hǔi ; translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton -- One Left: A Novel / Kim Soom ; translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton -- Togani: a novel (Modern Korean Fiction) / Ji-young Gong; translated by Bruce & Ju-Chan Fulton.
11featherbear
TLS July 14, 2023|No. 6276
Featured
Pablo Scheffer. Twixt tick and tock: Clashing philosophies of time in the Middle Ages. Review of: Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and medieval life / Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm.
Jenann T. Ismael. The big questions: What physics can teach us about the human condition. Review of: Existential Physics: A scientist’s guide to life’s biggest questions / Sabine Hossenfelder.
Sarah Baxter. Republican rivals: The challengers to Donald Trump. Review of: The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s blueprint for America’s revival / Ron DeSantis -- So Help Me God / Mike Pence -- A Nation of Victims: Identity politics, the death of merit, and the path back to excellence / Vivek Ramaswamy.
Peter Parker. Blithe spirit: How Noël Coward’s ferocious ambition created his talent. Review of: Masquerade: The lives of Noël Coward / Oliver Soden.
Literature, Language, Bibliography
Elizabeth Powers. World of sin, and snares, and pain: The first published Black American poet. Review of: The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A poet’s journey through American slavery and independence / David Waldstreicher.
Ollie Randall. Move over, Homer: Enheduana, the oldest named voice in literature. Review of: Enheduana: The complete poems of the world’s first author / Sophus Helle.
Graeme Richardson. Poetry like it’s 1923: Two poets revisit T. S. Eliot and their Anglo-Saxon inheritance. Review of: A Method, a Path / Rowan Evans -- Earth House / Matthew Hollis.
Naush Sabah. I wanted all of it again: Poetry as memoir of modernity. Review of: Was It For This / Hannah Sullivan.
Stephanie Sy-Quia. The habit of telling a story: Poems that outstay their welcome. Review of: Balladz / Sharon Olds.
John Kinsella. Drawn out of the dark: Wordplay inspired by nature and the Exeter Book. Review of: Material Properties / Jacob Polley.
Sarah Crow. Stranger things: A hero’s uncanny journey into the unknown. Review of: Study for Obedience / Sarah Bernstein.
Catherine Tayler. Wish I was not here: An amorality tale of small-town teenage life. Review of: Penance / Eliza Clarke.
Norma Clarke. The World’s bubble: A practising politician’s historical novel of politicking. Review of: The Winding Stair / Jesse Norman.
Michael LaPointe. Purity of the desert: A counterfactual history of Muslim Mexico. Review of: Red Smoking Mirror / Nick Hunt.
Alice Blackhurst. Not getting sexuality straight: Monique Wittig’s manifesto of materialist feminism. Review of: Le Corps lesbien / Monique Wittig -- Wittig / Émilie Notéri
Irina Dumritescu. Prison language: The difficulties and comforts of mastering a foreign tongue while incarcerated. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Holy Hoaxes: A beautiful deception / William Voelkle.
In Brief Review of: May the Tigris Grieve For You / Emilienne Malfatto; translated by Lorna Scott Fox.
In Brief Review of: Foul Deeds and Fine Dying / Marco Malvaldi; translated by Howard Curtis.
In Brief Review of: The Guest / Emma Cline.
Arts & Architecture
Muriel Zagha. A dream with eyes wide open: Wes Anderson’s vision of Norman Rockwell’s idyllic America gone sour. Review of Wes Anderson's film Asteroid City.
Robert Bevan. The Grand manner: The English Baroque became the British Empire’s official style. Review of: Building Greater Britain: Architecture, imperialism, and the Edwardian Baroque revival 1885-1920 / G. A. Bremner.
Boyd Tonkin. Hunters and prey: The National Portrait Gallery, redesigned and reinvigorated. (Essay)
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Gretchen Gerzina. Black and British: Recurring themes in a long history. Review of: African and Caribbean People in Britain: A history / Hakim Adi.
Paul Seabright. Things can only get better?: The ambivalent impact of innovation on society. Review of: Power and Progress: Our thousand-year struggle over technology and prosperity / Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson.
Max Harris. Greasing the world’s wheels: Economic government from the Depression to today. Review of: The Economic Government of the World 1933-2023 / Martin Daunton.
David Goodhart. Top-table clash: Too many graduates are chasing too few graduate jobs, with revolutionary implications. Review of: The End Times: Elites, counter-elites and the path of political disintegration / Peter Turchin.
D. D. Guttenplan. Right to bear arms, and fingers: The satirist Art Buchwald nibbled the hand that fed him. Review of: Funny Business: The legendary life and political satire of Art Buchwald / Michael Hill.
In Brief Review of: Boniments / François Bégaudeau.
In Brief Review of: Radical: a life of my own / Xialou Guo.
In Brief Review of: Return to the Motherland: Displaced Soviets in World War II and the Cold War / Seth Bernstein.
Featured
Pablo Scheffer. Twixt tick and tock: Clashing philosophies of time in the Middle Ages. Review of: Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and medieval life / Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm.
Jenann T. Ismael. The big questions: What physics can teach us about the human condition. Review of: Existential Physics: A scientist’s guide to life’s biggest questions / Sabine Hossenfelder.
Sarah Baxter. Republican rivals: The challengers to Donald Trump. Review of: The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s blueprint for America’s revival / Ron DeSantis -- So Help Me God / Mike Pence -- A Nation of Victims: Identity politics, the death of merit, and the path back to excellence / Vivek Ramaswamy.
Peter Parker. Blithe spirit: How Noël Coward’s ferocious ambition created his talent. Review of: Masquerade: The lives of Noël Coward / Oliver Soden.
Literature, Language, Bibliography
Elizabeth Powers. World of sin, and snares, and pain: The first published Black American poet. Review of: The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A poet’s journey through American slavery and independence / David Waldstreicher.
Ollie Randall. Move over, Homer: Enheduana, the oldest named voice in literature. Review of: Enheduana: The complete poems of the world’s first author / Sophus Helle.
Graeme Richardson. Poetry like it’s 1923: Two poets revisit T. S. Eliot and their Anglo-Saxon inheritance. Review of: A Method, a Path / Rowan Evans -- Earth House / Matthew Hollis.
Naush Sabah. I wanted all of it again: Poetry as memoir of modernity. Review of: Was It For This / Hannah Sullivan.
Stephanie Sy-Quia. The habit of telling a story: Poems that outstay their welcome. Review of: Balladz / Sharon Olds.
John Kinsella. Drawn out of the dark: Wordplay inspired by nature and the Exeter Book. Review of: Material Properties / Jacob Polley.
Sarah Crow. Stranger things: A hero’s uncanny journey into the unknown. Review of: Study for Obedience / Sarah Bernstein.
Catherine Tayler. Wish I was not here: An amorality tale of small-town teenage life. Review of: Penance / Eliza Clarke.
Norma Clarke. The World’s bubble: A practising politician’s historical novel of politicking. Review of: The Winding Stair / Jesse Norman.
Michael LaPointe. Purity of the desert: A counterfactual history of Muslim Mexico. Review of: Red Smoking Mirror / Nick Hunt.
Alice Blackhurst. Not getting sexuality straight: Monique Wittig’s manifesto of materialist feminism. Review of: Le Corps lesbien / Monique Wittig -- Wittig / Émilie Notéri
Irina Dumritescu. Prison language: The difficulties and comforts of mastering a foreign tongue while incarcerated. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Holy Hoaxes: A beautiful deception / William Voelkle.
In Brief Review of: May the Tigris Grieve For You / Emilienne Malfatto; translated by Lorna Scott Fox.
In Brief Review of: Foul Deeds and Fine Dying / Marco Malvaldi; translated by Howard Curtis.
In Brief Review of: The Guest / Emma Cline.
Arts & Architecture
Muriel Zagha. A dream with eyes wide open: Wes Anderson’s vision of Norman Rockwell’s idyllic America gone sour. Review of Wes Anderson's film Asteroid City.
Robert Bevan. The Grand manner: The English Baroque became the British Empire’s official style. Review of: Building Greater Britain: Architecture, imperialism, and the Edwardian Baroque revival 1885-1920 / G. A. Bremner.
Boyd Tonkin. Hunters and prey: The National Portrait Gallery, redesigned and reinvigorated. (Essay)
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Gretchen Gerzina. Black and British: Recurring themes in a long history. Review of: African and Caribbean People in Britain: A history / Hakim Adi.
Paul Seabright. Things can only get better?: The ambivalent impact of innovation on society. Review of: Power and Progress: Our thousand-year struggle over technology and prosperity / Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson.
Max Harris. Greasing the world’s wheels: Economic government from the Depression to today. Review of: The Economic Government of the World 1933-2023 / Martin Daunton.
David Goodhart. Top-table clash: Too many graduates are chasing too few graduate jobs, with revolutionary implications. Review of: The End Times: Elites, counter-elites and the path of political disintegration / Peter Turchin.
D. D. Guttenplan. Right to bear arms, and fingers: The satirist Art Buchwald nibbled the hand that fed him. Review of: Funny Business: The legendary life and political satire of Art Buchwald / Michael Hill.
In Brief Review of: Boniments / François Bégaudeau.
In Brief Review of: Radical: a life of my own / Xialou Guo.
In Brief Review of: Return to the Motherland: Displaced Soviets in World War II and the Cold War / Seth Bernstein.
12featherbear
Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 07/14/2023: Smithsonian abruptly cancels Asian American literary festival.
13featherbear
TLS July 21, 2023|No. 6277
Featured
Bharat Tandon. Child’s play: The madness of adult social conventions. Review of: Dangerous Children: On seven novels and a story / Kenneth Gross.
Edmund Gordon. Falling upwards: Colson Whitehead’s Harlem series capers into the 1970s. Review of: Crook Manifesto / Colson Whitehead.
Anson Rabinbach. Moral catastrophe: The great inflation and the Hitler putsch. Review of: Germany 1923: The edge of the abyss / Volker Ullrich; translated by Jefferson Chase -- 1923: The forgotten crisis in the year of Hitler’s coup / Mark Jones -- A Moral History of the Inflation: Germany during the Weimar Republic / Hans Ostwald; translated by Andrew Rickard.
Penny McCarthy. Stuff as dreams are made on: The case for an earlier dating of The Tempest. (Essay)
Literature
Maya Jaggi. A porous paradise: Sectarianism and trickery in early twentieth-century Aleppo. Review of: No One Prayed Over Their Graves / Khaled Khalifa; translated by Leri Price.
Nick Holdstock. Urban mayflies: Amid the souks and brothels of twentieth-century Tangier. Review of: Tales of Tangier: The complete short stories of Mohamed Choukri / Mohamed Choukri; translated by Jonas Elbousty and Roger Allen.
Tom Lathan. Why can’t we have normal lives?: A UK version of Peanuts – with the grown-ups as the focus. Review of: Why Don't You Love Me? / Paul B. Rainey.
Alex Peake-Tomkinson. Eggs and chips: Difficult choices facing women in their thirties. Review of: Second Self / Chloë Ashby.
Rachel Hadas. Beyond the grave: Giving voice to displacement, exile and loss. Review of: What Is It Like? / Lidija Dimkovska; translated by Ljubica Arsovska, Patricia Marsh and Peggy Reid -- Aunt Bird / Yerra Sugarman.
In Brief Review of: The Liar / Martin A. Hansen; translated by Paul Larkin.
In Brief Review of: Fugue américaine / Bruno Le Maire.
In Brief Review of: The Fourth Sister / Laura Scott.
In Brief Review of: The Scent of Flowers at Night / Leïla Slimani; translated by Sam Taylor.
Arts
Margreta de Grazia. We see our own Juliet: The many faces of Shakespeare’s heroine. Review of: Searching for Juliet: The lives and deaths of Shakespeare’s first tragic heroine / Sophie Duncan.
Tiffany Stern. Boys’ own story: The extraordinary energy of young Elizabethan actors. Review of: Boy Actors in Early Modern England: Skill and stagecraft in the theatre / Harry R. McCarthy.
Barts Van Es. A talent to amuse and abuse: Avatars of the Elizabethan tavern, printing house and playhouse. Review of: Thomas Nashe and Late Elizabethan Writing / Andrew Hadfield -- Shakespeare's Tutor: The influence of Thomas Kyd / Darren Freebury-Jones.
Alice Robb. Dancing the literary canon: Ballet’s return to narrative and the ‘storification of reality.’ (Essay)
Maria Margaronis. Doctor in trouble: Mark Rylance as a man who sets out to save mothers in childbirth. Review of Stephen Browne with Mark Rylance, Dr. Semmelweis, Harold Pinter Theatre, until October 7.
Philosophy
Lucy McDonald. Identity crisis: A philosopher’s argument against moral relativism. Review of: Moral Progress in Dark Times: Universal values for the 21st Century / Markus Gabriel; translated by Wieland Hoban.
Mado Cairns. Losing the real Karl Marx: Nine followers who created a system but buried the man. Review of: The Invention of Marxism: How an idea changed everything / Christina Morina; translated by Elizabeth Janik.
Religion
In Brief Review of: Touching Cloth: Confessions and communions of a young priest / Fergus Butler-Gallie.
History, Politics, & Society
Pratinav Anil. A life beyond India’s pale: The leader of the ‘Untouchables.’ Review of: B. R. Ambedkar: The man who gave hope to India’s dispossessed / Shashi Tharoor.
Ian Sansom. Oracy for beginners: How Walter J. Ong got it right. (Essay)
Rory Maclean. The other half of the continent: A thematic history of eastern Europe. Review of: Goodbye Eastern Europe: An intimate history of a divided land / Jacob Mikanowski.
Edward Tyerman. The Bear and the Dragon: The friendship and rivalry of two neighbouring imperial powers. Review of: China and Russia: Four centuries of conflict and concord / Philip Snow.
Hans Kundnani. More problems from hell: The German response to three postwar genocides. Review of: Never Again: Germans and genocide after the Holocaust / Andrew I. Port.
Jonathan Sperber. The first fall of France: A harbinger of total war or the last old-fashioned conflict? Review of: Bismarck's War: The Franco–Prussian War and the making of modern Europe / Rachel Chrastil.
Charles Emmerson. Singing from Stalin’s songsheet: How journalists in Moscow’s Metropol hotel were fed the news. Review of: The Red Hotel: The untold story of Stalin’s disinformation war / Alan Philps.
Navtej Sarna. The lady vanishes: On the trail of an elusive royal. Review of: In Search of Amrit Kaur: An Indian princess in wartime Paris / Livia Manera Sambuy; translated by Todd Portnowitz.
Kate Hext. Freedom in the sublime: Pioneers and disciples of women’s sport. Review of: In Her Nature: How women break boundaries in the great outdoors / Rachel Hewitt.
In Brief Review of: Attack Warning Red!: How Britain prepared for nuclear war / Julie McDowall.
In Brief Review of: Arrangements in Blue: Notes on love and making a life / Amy Key.
Featured
Bharat Tandon. Child’s play: The madness of adult social conventions. Review of: Dangerous Children: On seven novels and a story / Kenneth Gross.
Edmund Gordon. Falling upwards: Colson Whitehead’s Harlem series capers into the 1970s. Review of: Crook Manifesto / Colson Whitehead.
Anson Rabinbach. Moral catastrophe: The great inflation and the Hitler putsch. Review of: Germany 1923: The edge of the abyss / Volker Ullrich; translated by Jefferson Chase -- 1923: The forgotten crisis in the year of Hitler’s coup / Mark Jones -- A Moral History of the Inflation: Germany during the Weimar Republic / Hans Ostwald; translated by Andrew Rickard.
Penny McCarthy. Stuff as dreams are made on: The case for an earlier dating of The Tempest. (Essay)
Literature
Maya Jaggi. A porous paradise: Sectarianism and trickery in early twentieth-century Aleppo. Review of: No One Prayed Over Their Graves / Khaled Khalifa; translated by Leri Price.
Nick Holdstock. Urban mayflies: Amid the souks and brothels of twentieth-century Tangier. Review of: Tales of Tangier: The complete short stories of Mohamed Choukri / Mohamed Choukri; translated by Jonas Elbousty and Roger Allen.
Tom Lathan. Why can’t we have normal lives?: A UK version of Peanuts – with the grown-ups as the focus. Review of: Why Don't You Love Me? / Paul B. Rainey.
Alex Peake-Tomkinson. Eggs and chips: Difficult choices facing women in their thirties. Review of: Second Self / Chloë Ashby.
Rachel Hadas. Beyond the grave: Giving voice to displacement, exile and loss. Review of: What Is It Like? / Lidija Dimkovska; translated by Ljubica Arsovska, Patricia Marsh and Peggy Reid -- Aunt Bird / Yerra Sugarman.
In Brief Review of: The Liar / Martin A. Hansen; translated by Paul Larkin.
In Brief Review of: Fugue américaine / Bruno Le Maire.
In Brief Review of: The Fourth Sister / Laura Scott.
In Brief Review of: The Scent of Flowers at Night / Leïla Slimani; translated by Sam Taylor.
Arts
Margreta de Grazia. We see our own Juliet: The many faces of Shakespeare’s heroine. Review of: Searching for Juliet: The lives and deaths of Shakespeare’s first tragic heroine / Sophie Duncan.
Tiffany Stern. Boys’ own story: The extraordinary energy of young Elizabethan actors. Review of: Boy Actors in Early Modern England: Skill and stagecraft in the theatre / Harry R. McCarthy.
Barts Van Es. A talent to amuse and abuse: Avatars of the Elizabethan tavern, printing house and playhouse. Review of: Thomas Nashe and Late Elizabethan Writing / Andrew Hadfield -- Shakespeare's Tutor: The influence of Thomas Kyd / Darren Freebury-Jones.
Alice Robb. Dancing the literary canon: Ballet’s return to narrative and the ‘storification of reality.’ (Essay)
Maria Margaronis. Doctor in trouble: Mark Rylance as a man who sets out to save mothers in childbirth. Review of Stephen Browne with Mark Rylance, Dr. Semmelweis, Harold Pinter Theatre, until October 7.
Philosophy
Lucy McDonald. Identity crisis: A philosopher’s argument against moral relativism. Review of: Moral Progress in Dark Times: Universal values for the 21st Century / Markus Gabriel; translated by Wieland Hoban.
Mado Cairns. Losing the real Karl Marx: Nine followers who created a system but buried the man. Review of: The Invention of Marxism: How an idea changed everything / Christina Morina; translated by Elizabeth Janik.
Religion
In Brief Review of: Touching Cloth: Confessions and communions of a young priest / Fergus Butler-Gallie.
History, Politics, & Society
Pratinav Anil. A life beyond India’s pale: The leader of the ‘Untouchables.’ Review of: B. R. Ambedkar: The man who gave hope to India’s dispossessed / Shashi Tharoor.
Ian Sansom. Oracy for beginners: How Walter J. Ong got it right. (Essay)
Rory Maclean. The other half of the continent: A thematic history of eastern Europe. Review of: Goodbye Eastern Europe: An intimate history of a divided land / Jacob Mikanowski.
Edward Tyerman. The Bear and the Dragon: The friendship and rivalry of two neighbouring imperial powers. Review of: China and Russia: Four centuries of conflict and concord / Philip Snow.
Hans Kundnani. More problems from hell: The German response to three postwar genocides. Review of: Never Again: Germans and genocide after the Holocaust / Andrew I. Port.
Jonathan Sperber. The first fall of France: A harbinger of total war or the last old-fashioned conflict? Review of: Bismarck's War: The Franco–Prussian War and the making of modern Europe / Rachel Chrastil.
Charles Emmerson. Singing from Stalin’s songsheet: How journalists in Moscow’s Metropol hotel were fed the news. Review of: The Red Hotel: The untold story of Stalin’s disinformation war / Alan Philps.
Navtej Sarna. The lady vanishes: On the trail of an elusive royal. Review of: In Search of Amrit Kaur: An Indian princess in wartime Paris / Livia Manera Sambuy; translated by Todd Portnowitz.
Kate Hext. Freedom in the sublime: Pioneers and disciples of women’s sport. Review of: In Her Nature: How women break boundaries in the great outdoors / Rachel Hewitt.
In Brief Review of: Attack Warning Red!: How Britain prepared for nuclear war / Julie McDowall.
In Brief Review of: Arrangements in Blue: Notes on love and making a life / Amy Key.
14featherbear
Recently from LARB
Andrew Dean. 07/19/2023: Machine Voice: Programmer Fiction. How J.M. Coetzee's early career as a computer programmer affected his ideas on language and writing.
Ken McLeod. 07/18/2023: Transcending the Materialistic Illusion. Review of: Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey Through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality / Andy Karr.
Robert Luckhurst. 07/18/2023: A Lifetime Drama of Escape. Review of: Wish I Was Here: An Anti-Memoir / M. John Harrison.
Randal Maurice Jelks. Close Ranks: On Three New Books Exploring African Americans, Patriotism, and the US Armed Forces. Review of: An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era / Beth Bailey -- Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad / Matthew F. Delmont -- The Wounded World: W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War / Chad L. Williams.
Grace Linden. 07/16/2023: Life, Disturbed. Review of: Nothing Special / Nicole Flattery.
Nile Green. 07/15/2023: A Medieval Age of Disruption. Review of: The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East / Nicholas Morton.
Andrew Dean. 07/19/2023: Machine Voice: Programmer Fiction. How J.M. Coetzee's early career as a computer programmer affected his ideas on language and writing.
Ken McLeod. 07/18/2023: Transcending the Materialistic Illusion. Review of: Into the Mirror: A Buddhist Journey Through Mind, Matter, and the Nature of Reality / Andy Karr.
Robert Luckhurst. 07/18/2023: A Lifetime Drama of Escape. Review of: Wish I Was Here: An Anti-Memoir / M. John Harrison.
Randal Maurice Jelks. Close Ranks: On Three New Books Exploring African Americans, Patriotism, and the US Armed Forces. Review of: An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era / Beth Bailey -- Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad / Matthew F. Delmont -- The Wounded World: W. E. B. Du Bois and the First World War / Chad L. Williams.
Grace Linden. 07/16/2023: Life, Disturbed. Review of: Nothing Special / Nicole Flattery.
Nile Green. 07/15/2023: A Medieval Age of Disruption. Review of: The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East / Nicholas Morton.
15featherbear
Jacob Brogan. WaPo, 07/18/2023: Can novels make us better people? Review of: The Novel -- Who Needs It? / Joseph Epstein.
16featherbear
Blake Smith. Tablet, 07/16/2023: Lament for Susan: The rediscovery of Susan Taubes risks trapping her work within the prison of contemporary autofiction.
17featherbear
More LARB:
Crispin Sartwell. 07/21/2023: The New Hellenism. "Starting around 2010, however, there was a striking change, surprising to someone trained in the 1980s. Some philosophy professors began to write a lot more personally; they tried to show how philosophical ideas had affected and might affect their own lives."
Kurt Ostrow. 07/20/2023: Feeling Solarpunk. Review of: A Psalm for the Wild-Built / Becky Chambers -- A Prayer for the Crown-Shy / Becky Chambers.
Anjum Hasan. 07/19/2023: Eating to Live. Review of: The Book of Goose / Yiyun Li -- Dinner for Six / Lu Min -- A Lover’s Discourse / Xiaolu Guo.
Crispin Sartwell. 07/21/2023: The New Hellenism. "Starting around 2010, however, there was a striking change, surprising to someone trained in the 1980s. Some philosophy professors began to write a lot more personally; they tried to show how philosophical ideas had affected and might affect their own lives."
Kurt Ostrow. 07/20/2023: Feeling Solarpunk. Review of: A Psalm for the Wild-Built / Becky Chambers -- A Prayer for the Crown-Shy / Becky Chambers.
Anjum Hasan. 07/19/2023: Eating to Live. Review of: The Book of Goose / Yiyun Li -- Dinner for Six / Lu Min -- A Lover’s Discourse / Xiaolu Guo.
18featherbear
William Giraldi. The Lamp (blog post), 07/19/2023: Self-Begot, Self-Rais'd: On Cormac McCarthy and the anxiety of influence.
19featherbear
TLS November 8, 2019|No. 6084
Featured
Mick Herron. ‘Point me and I’ll march’: Re-reading John le Carré (1931–2020). (Essay)
From the week's letters to the editor. Turkey’s treatment of its minorities: Turkey in recent history, Prisons, Patron saint of PLR, etc.
Andrea Scrima. Slowly falling: Andrea Scrima recalls November 1989 in Berlin. (Essay)
Michael Hofmann. Consciously verbal: The undervaluing of Les Murray. Review of: Les Murray: Collected Poems.
Fiction & Literature
Rebecca Liu. Necessary words: How we express what we want to express. Review of: Crises of the Sentence / Jan Mieszkowski.
Sarah Lonsdale. Political correspondents: How authors became enmeshed in national struggle. Review of: Cold Warriors: Writers who waged the literary Cold War / Duncan White.
Ian Thomson. The great clusterfuck: A tale of Russian intrigue in Britain’s mess. Review of: Agent Running in the Field / John le Carré.
Kate Webb. Profit’s monsters: Amitav Ghosh’s portrait of nature taking its course. Review of: Gun Island / Amitav Ghosh.
Yelena Moskovich. There’s always Mama: Love at arm's reach. Review of: Klotsvog / Margarita Khemlin; translated by Lisa C. Hayden.
Beejay Silcox. The uses of suffering: The Freudian family saga gripping Norway. Review of: Will and Testament / Vigdis Hjorth; translated by Charlotte Barslund.
Evelyn Toynton. Champion of grief: Bluntly navigating widowhood at thirty-six. Review of: Let's Hope for the Best / Carolina Setterwall; translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel.
Zuneera Shah. More than a woman’s plight: Polyamory, intimacy and impotence. Review of: One Part Woman / Perumal Murugan; translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan.
Jennifer Hodgson. Ask the penguin: ‘a dialogue in the void.’ Review of: One Another / Monique Schwitter; translated by Tess Lewis.
Vladimir Nabokov. Melting with tenderness: An interview with Bernard Pivot on Apostrophes.
In Brief Review of: The Cockroach / Ian McEwan.
In Brief Review of: Down in the Valley: A writer’s landscape / Laurie Lee; edited by David Parker.
Poetry
Kathryn Maris. Half-open door: Symmetry in life and death. Review of: Lines Off / Hugo Williams.
Rory Waterman. Sick of sadness: Lyrics of the personal and political. Review of: The Tradition / Jericho Brown.
In Brief Review of: Sissy / Ben Borek.
In Brief Review of: The Girl Who Forgets How to Walk / Kate Davis.
In Brief Review of: Beginner's Luck / U.A. Fanthorpe; edited by R. V. Bailey.
In Brief Review of: So Many Rooms / Laura Scott.
In Brief Review of: Prophecy / Thomas McCarthy.
Arts
Richard Hamblyn. Flights of fancy: Victorian science and meteorological adventure. Review of the film The Aeronauts.
Jane Yager. Existential screams: DIY punk in the DDR. Review of: Burning Down the Haus: Punk rock, revolution and the fall of the Berlin / Tim Mohr.
Samuel Graydon. Language, big and old: Grief, memory and change in Ed Thomas’s new play. Review of the play by Ed Thomas, On Bear Ridge, Royal Court Theatre, until November 23.
In Brief Review of: Move on Up: Chicago soul music and black cultural power / Aaron Cohen.
Religion
In Brief Review of: The Life of St Teresa of Avila: a biography / Carlos Eire.
History, Politics, & Society
Christina Riggs. Boy-king bling: The treasures of Tutankhamun, accompanied by myth, nostalgia and a consumer wonderland.
Donna Zuckerberg. Creamily stately: Wit, erudition and looking at modernity through an ancient prism. Review of: The Bad Boy of Athens: Classics from the Greeks to Game of Thrones / Daniel Mendelsohn.
Rob Doyle. Multiple fronts on the culture war: Aspirational artforms of the East. Review of: New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, dizi and K-pop / Fatima Bhutto.
Larry Wolff. Century of trauma: Poland’s cultural response to its bloody recent history. Review of: Being Poland: A new history of Polish literature and culture since 1918 / Tamara Trojanowska, Joanna Niżyńska and Przemysław Czapliński, with Agnieszka Polakowska, editors.
Georgina Paul. Memory building: Managing the legacy of the Berlin Wall. Review of: After the Berlin Hall: Memory and the making of the new Germany / Hope M. Harrison.
Toby Vogel. Beginning of history: Changes at the end of the Cold War. Review of: Post Wall Post Square: Rebuilding the world after 1989 / Kristina Spohr.
Lewis H. Siegelbaum. The rise of democracy: How nations asserted their own sovereignty in the early Cold War. Review of: Stalin and the Fate of Europe: The postwar struggle for sovereignty / Norman M. Naimark.
Marius Ivaškevičius. Beast from the East: A Lithuanian perspective on war in Europe. (Essay)
James McConnachie. Stirring emotional meat: Talking to neighbours about modernity. Review of: The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the twenty-first century / John Higgs.
Malcolm Gaskill. For the unfallen: Remembering a survivor from the First World War. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Messengers of Hindu Nationalism: How the RSS reshaped India / Walter K. Andersen and Shridhar D. Damle.
In Brief Review of: Harvest: The hidden histories of seven natural objects / Edward Posnett.
In Brief Review of: The Baby / Marie Darrieussecq; translated by Penny Hueston.
Featured
Mick Herron. ‘Point me and I’ll march’: Re-reading John le Carré (1931–2020). (Essay)
From the week's letters to the editor. Turkey’s treatment of its minorities: Turkey in recent history, Prisons, Patron saint of PLR, etc.
Andrea Scrima. Slowly falling: Andrea Scrima recalls November 1989 in Berlin. (Essay)
Michael Hofmann. Consciously verbal: The undervaluing of Les Murray. Review of: Les Murray: Collected Poems.
Fiction & Literature
Rebecca Liu. Necessary words: How we express what we want to express. Review of: Crises of the Sentence / Jan Mieszkowski.
Sarah Lonsdale. Political correspondents: How authors became enmeshed in national struggle. Review of: Cold Warriors: Writers who waged the literary Cold War / Duncan White.
Ian Thomson. The great clusterfuck: A tale of Russian intrigue in Britain’s mess. Review of: Agent Running in the Field / John le Carré.
Kate Webb. Profit’s monsters: Amitav Ghosh’s portrait of nature taking its course. Review of: Gun Island / Amitav Ghosh.
Yelena Moskovich. There’s always Mama: Love at arm's reach. Review of: Klotsvog / Margarita Khemlin; translated by Lisa C. Hayden.
Beejay Silcox. The uses of suffering: The Freudian family saga gripping Norway. Review of: Will and Testament / Vigdis Hjorth; translated by Charlotte Barslund.
Evelyn Toynton. Champion of grief: Bluntly navigating widowhood at thirty-six. Review of: Let's Hope for the Best / Carolina Setterwall; translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel.
Zuneera Shah. More than a woman’s plight: Polyamory, intimacy and impotence. Review of: One Part Woman / Perumal Murugan; translated by Aniruddhan Vasudevan.
Jennifer Hodgson. Ask the penguin: ‘a dialogue in the void.’ Review of: One Another / Monique Schwitter; translated by Tess Lewis.
Vladimir Nabokov. Melting with tenderness: An interview with Bernard Pivot on Apostrophes.
In Brief Review of: The Cockroach / Ian McEwan.
In Brief Review of: Down in the Valley: A writer’s landscape / Laurie Lee; edited by David Parker.
Poetry
Kathryn Maris. Half-open door: Symmetry in life and death. Review of: Lines Off / Hugo Williams.
Rory Waterman. Sick of sadness: Lyrics of the personal and political. Review of: The Tradition / Jericho Brown.
In Brief Review of: Sissy / Ben Borek.
In Brief Review of: The Girl Who Forgets How to Walk / Kate Davis.
In Brief Review of: Beginner's Luck / U.A. Fanthorpe; edited by R. V. Bailey.
In Brief Review of: So Many Rooms / Laura Scott.
In Brief Review of: Prophecy / Thomas McCarthy.
Arts
Richard Hamblyn. Flights of fancy: Victorian science and meteorological adventure. Review of the film The Aeronauts.
Jane Yager. Existential screams: DIY punk in the DDR. Review of: Burning Down the Haus: Punk rock, revolution and the fall of the Berlin / Tim Mohr.
Samuel Graydon. Language, big and old: Grief, memory and change in Ed Thomas’s new play. Review of the play by Ed Thomas, On Bear Ridge, Royal Court Theatre, until November 23.
In Brief Review of: Move on Up: Chicago soul music and black cultural power / Aaron Cohen.
Religion
In Brief Review of: The Life of St Teresa of Avila: a biography / Carlos Eire.
History, Politics, & Society
Christina Riggs. Boy-king bling: The treasures of Tutankhamun, accompanied by myth, nostalgia and a consumer wonderland.
Donna Zuckerberg. Creamily stately: Wit, erudition and looking at modernity through an ancient prism. Review of: The Bad Boy of Athens: Classics from the Greeks to Game of Thrones / Daniel Mendelsohn.
Rob Doyle. Multiple fronts on the culture war: Aspirational artforms of the East. Review of: New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, dizi and K-pop / Fatima Bhutto.
Larry Wolff. Century of trauma: Poland’s cultural response to its bloody recent history. Review of: Being Poland: A new history of Polish literature and culture since 1918 / Tamara Trojanowska, Joanna Niżyńska and Przemysław Czapliński, with Agnieszka Polakowska, editors.
Georgina Paul. Memory building: Managing the legacy of the Berlin Wall. Review of: After the Berlin Hall: Memory and the making of the new Germany / Hope M. Harrison.
Toby Vogel. Beginning of history: Changes at the end of the Cold War. Review of: Post Wall Post Square: Rebuilding the world after 1989 / Kristina Spohr.
Lewis H. Siegelbaum. The rise of democracy: How nations asserted their own sovereignty in the early Cold War. Review of: Stalin and the Fate of Europe: The postwar struggle for sovereignty / Norman M. Naimark.
Marius Ivaškevičius. Beast from the East: A Lithuanian perspective on war in Europe. (Essay)
James McConnachie. Stirring emotional meat: Talking to neighbours about modernity. Review of: The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the twenty-first century / John Higgs.
Malcolm Gaskill. For the unfallen: Remembering a survivor from the First World War. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Messengers of Hindu Nationalism: How the RSS reshaped India / Walter K. Andersen and Shridhar D. Damle.
In Brief Review of: Harvest: The hidden histories of seven natural objects / Edward Posnett.
In Brief Review of: The Baby / Marie Darrieussecq; translated by Penny Hueston.
20featherbear
Rebecca F. Kuang. Guardian, 07/25/2023: Goodreads is right to divide opinions, wrong to boil them down.
Helen Lewis. The Atlantic, 07/26/2023: The Wrath of Goodreads: Authors are at the mercy of people who don’t bother reading their work.
Helen Lewis. The Atlantic, 07/26/2023: The Wrath of Goodreads: Authors are at the mercy of people who don’t bother reading their work.
21featherbear
Jennifer Wilson. New Yorker, 07/24/2023: The Cacophonous Miracle of “The Brothers Karamazov”.
22featherbear
John R. McNeill, interviewed by Cal Flyn. fivebooks.com, 07/20/2023: The best books on Environmental History recommended by John R McNeill.
The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail / W. Jeffrey Bolster -- Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters / Kate Brown -- Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (Studies in Environment and History) / Alfred W. Crosby -- The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World (Volume 1) (California World History Library) / John F. Richards -- The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1938 (Studies in Environment and History) / Myrna I. Santiago.
McNeill is the author of: The Webs of Humankind: A World History (Seagull Edition) -- Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (The Global Century Series)
The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail / W. Jeffrey Bolster -- Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters / Kate Brown -- Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (Studies in Environment and History) / Alfred W. Crosby -- The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World (Volume 1) (California World History Library) / John F. Richards -- The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1938 (Studies in Environment and History) / Myrna I. Santiago.
McNeill is the author of: The Webs of Humankind: A World History (Seagull Edition) -- Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (The Global Century Series)
23featherbear
"Michael Dirda shares 29 of his rules for reading. They are not hard and fast."
Michael Dirda. WaPo, 07/27/2023: Paperback or hardcover? Used or new? Let’s talk about our book habits.
Michael Dirda. WaPo, 07/27/2023: Paperback or hardcover? Used or new? Let’s talk about our book habits.
24featherbear
TLS August 4, 2023|No. 6279
Featured
Jane O'Grady. How to do things with wars: The life of the philosopher who ‘changed the whole idea of what language is.’ Review of: J. L. Austin: Philosopher and D-Day intelligence officer / M.W. Rowe.
Miranda France. Life in plastic: Barbie Land meets the real world in Greta Gerwig’s colourful comedy. Review of Greta Gerwig's film Barbie and An American Icon in Puerto Rico: Barbie, girlhood, and colonialism at play / Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez.
Eric Rauchway. Crash and burn: Do we ever learn from capitalism’s periodic crises?. Review of: Seven Crashes: The economic crises that shaped globalization / Harold James -- The Great Crashes: Lessons from global meltdowns and how to prevent them / Linda Yueh.
Joyce Carol Oates. A world beyond: Suburban life meets the fantastic in Rachel Ingalls’s fiction. Review of: No Love Lost: The selected novellas of Rachel Ingalls / Rachel Ingalls.
Literature & Bibliography
David Butterfield. Infinity in a reed: An ode to ancient books, libraries and literary survival. Review of: Papyrus: The invention of books in the ancient world / Irene Vallejo, translated by Charlotte Whittle.
Sophie Oliver. The spider’s web: Failures of communication and sympathy in modernist fiction. Review of: The Persistence of Realism in Modernist Fiction / Paul Stasi.
Tom Sperlinger. We have our papers too: Writing as an act of resistance. Review of: Resistance Literature / Barbara Harlow -- Contemporary Arab Women's Life Writing and the Politics of Resistance / Hiyem Cheurfa -- Imagining Palestine / Tahrir Hamdi -- Read Dangerously: The subversive power of literature in troubled times / Azar Nafisi.
Keith Hopper. A disappearance: Nostalgia, trauma and imperfect memory in a literary thriller. Review of: Kala / Colin Walsh.
Clare Cavanagh. Poetry held up against the light: Wisława Szymborska at 100, and a previously unpublished translation. (Essay)
Natasha Lehrer. Party in the country: Sagan’s unfinished bourgeois comedy of manners. Review of: The Four Corners of the Heart: an unfinished novel / Françoise Sagan; translated by Sophie Lewis.
Anna Aslanyan. Power, power everywhere: Adam Thirlwell’s phantasmagorical romp through history. Review of: The Future Future / Adam Thirlwell.
Houman Barekat. Idiot savant: An amusing and unsentimental novel of migration. Review of: Hangman / Maya Binyam.
Alice Wadsworth. Through the wormhole: A journey through space, time, class and intersectionality. Review of: Corey Fah Does Social Mobility / Isabel Waidner.
In Brief Review of: All the World's a Book: 400 Jahre Shakespeares First Folio/400 years of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Gedichte/Poems / Tobias Döring, Lisa Jeschke and Holger Pils, editors.
In Brief Review of: Artifice / Lavinia Singer.
In Brief Review of: Yes! No! But Wait…!: The one thing you need to know to write a novel / Tim Lott.
Arts
Laura Tunbridge. Schubert and his friends: The biography of a young musical genius. Review of: Schubert: a musical wayfarer / Lorraine Byrne Bodley.
Julie McDowall. Loosed upon the world: Oppenheimer is a hero ‘bleached pale’ in Christopher Nolan’s biopic. Review of Christopher Nolan's film Oppenheimer.
Natural History
In Brief Review of: Elderflora: A modern history of ancient trees / Jared Farmer.
In Brief Review of: The Missing Musk: A casebook of mysteries from the natural world / Bob Gilbert.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
David Garland. Always with us: The exploitation of America’s poor by its middle class. Review of: Poverty, By America / Matthew Desmond.
James Cahill. Et in Etruria ego: The disappearance and rediscovery of the Etruscans. Review of: The Etruscans in the Modern Imagination / Sam Solecki.
Richard J. Aldrich. State secrets and lies: Espionage gambits from fake news to cyberwarfare. Review of: Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West / Calder Walton.
Hunter Dukes. Swings of desire: Violence, ecstasy and abjection in a cultural history of moving seats. Review of: Arc of Feeling: the history of the swing / Javier Moscoso.
Henry Hitchings. The swindler’s swindler: The $160 billion Oman Ghana trust that wasn’t. Review of: Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world / Yepoka Yeebo.
Michael Hall. The Ascendancy at home: Inventories of eighteenth-century Irish households. Review of: Great Irish Households: Inventories from the long eighteenth century / Toby Barnard, Leslie Fitzpatrick, Jessica Cunningham.
Regina Rini. The annoying side of history: Fulminating for the future. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: FDR's Gambit: The court packing fight and the rise of legal liberalism / Laura Kalman.
In Brief Review of: Undercurrent: A Cornish memoir of poverty, nature and resilience / Natasha Carthew.
Featured
Jane O'Grady. How to do things with wars: The life of the philosopher who ‘changed the whole idea of what language is.’ Review of: J. L. Austin: Philosopher and D-Day intelligence officer / M.W. Rowe.
Miranda France. Life in plastic: Barbie Land meets the real world in Greta Gerwig’s colourful comedy. Review of Greta Gerwig's film Barbie and An American Icon in Puerto Rico: Barbie, girlhood, and colonialism at play / Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez.
Eric Rauchway. Crash and burn: Do we ever learn from capitalism’s periodic crises?. Review of: Seven Crashes: The economic crises that shaped globalization / Harold James -- The Great Crashes: Lessons from global meltdowns and how to prevent them / Linda Yueh.
Joyce Carol Oates. A world beyond: Suburban life meets the fantastic in Rachel Ingalls’s fiction. Review of: No Love Lost: The selected novellas of Rachel Ingalls / Rachel Ingalls.
Literature & Bibliography
David Butterfield. Infinity in a reed: An ode to ancient books, libraries and literary survival. Review of: Papyrus: The invention of books in the ancient world / Irene Vallejo, translated by Charlotte Whittle.
Sophie Oliver. The spider’s web: Failures of communication and sympathy in modernist fiction. Review of: The Persistence of Realism in Modernist Fiction / Paul Stasi.
Tom Sperlinger. We have our papers too: Writing as an act of resistance. Review of: Resistance Literature / Barbara Harlow -- Contemporary Arab Women's Life Writing and the Politics of Resistance / Hiyem Cheurfa -- Imagining Palestine / Tahrir Hamdi -- Read Dangerously: The subversive power of literature in troubled times / Azar Nafisi.
Keith Hopper. A disappearance: Nostalgia, trauma and imperfect memory in a literary thriller. Review of: Kala / Colin Walsh.
Clare Cavanagh. Poetry held up against the light: Wisława Szymborska at 100, and a previously unpublished translation. (Essay)
Natasha Lehrer. Party in the country: Sagan’s unfinished bourgeois comedy of manners. Review of: The Four Corners of the Heart: an unfinished novel / Françoise Sagan; translated by Sophie Lewis.
Anna Aslanyan. Power, power everywhere: Adam Thirlwell’s phantasmagorical romp through history. Review of: The Future Future / Adam Thirlwell.
Houman Barekat. Idiot savant: An amusing and unsentimental novel of migration. Review of: Hangman / Maya Binyam.
Alice Wadsworth. Through the wormhole: A journey through space, time, class and intersectionality. Review of: Corey Fah Does Social Mobility / Isabel Waidner.
In Brief Review of: All the World's a Book: 400 Jahre Shakespeares First Folio/400 years of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Gedichte/Poems / Tobias Döring, Lisa Jeschke and Holger Pils, editors.
In Brief Review of: Artifice / Lavinia Singer.
In Brief Review of: Yes! No! But Wait…!: The one thing you need to know to write a novel / Tim Lott.
Arts
Laura Tunbridge. Schubert and his friends: The biography of a young musical genius. Review of: Schubert: a musical wayfarer / Lorraine Byrne Bodley.
Julie McDowall. Loosed upon the world: Oppenheimer is a hero ‘bleached pale’ in Christopher Nolan’s biopic. Review of Christopher Nolan's film Oppenheimer.
Natural History
In Brief Review of: Elderflora: A modern history of ancient trees / Jared Farmer.
In Brief Review of: The Missing Musk: A casebook of mysteries from the natural world / Bob Gilbert.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
David Garland. Always with us: The exploitation of America’s poor by its middle class. Review of: Poverty, By America / Matthew Desmond.
James Cahill. Et in Etruria ego: The disappearance and rediscovery of the Etruscans. Review of: The Etruscans in the Modern Imagination / Sam Solecki.
Richard J. Aldrich. State secrets and lies: Espionage gambits from fake news to cyberwarfare. Review of: Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West / Calder Walton.
Hunter Dukes. Swings of desire: Violence, ecstasy and abjection in a cultural history of moving seats. Review of: Arc of Feeling: the history of the swing / Javier Moscoso.
Henry Hitchings. The swindler’s swindler: The $160 billion Oman Ghana trust that wasn’t. Review of: Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world / Yepoka Yeebo.
Michael Hall. The Ascendancy at home: Inventories of eighteenth-century Irish households. Review of: Great Irish Households: Inventories from the long eighteenth century / Toby Barnard, Leslie Fitzpatrick, Jessica Cunningham.
Regina Rini. The annoying side of history: Fulminating for the future. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: FDR's Gambit: The court packing fight and the rise of legal liberalism / Laura Kalman.
In Brief Review of: Undercurrent: A Cornish memoir of poverty, nature and resilience / Natasha Carthew.
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Ed Simon. The Millions, 08/03/2023: Why Read John Milton? "What draws me to Milton is the language—those gorgeous, labyrinthine, serpentine sentences which unspool across dozens of enjambed lines, the chutzpa to promise “Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme,” and to then nearly deliver, the cracked aphorisms which court heresy as when Satan declares that it’s “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.” .
Aside: Milton's God underrated.
Aside: Milton's God underrated.
26featherbear
Overlooked from the last quarter?
Nikhil Krishnan. New Yorker, 07/26/2023: Aristotle’s Rules for Living Well. "The Nicomachean Ethics is an unexampled work by a paragon of classical thought. How does it hold up as a self-help manual?"
Nikhil Krishnan. New Yorker, 07/26/2023: Aristotle’s Rules for Living Well. "The Nicomachean Ethics is an unexampled work by a paragon of classical thought. How does it hold up as a self-help manual?"
27featherbear
NYRB online, 03/17/2023
Literature
Ange Mlinko. Wonder Cabinets of the Mind: an encyclopedic poem that captures the immense experience of working, and being, at the Met. Review of: Information Desk: An Epic / Robyn Schiff.
Clare Bucknell. The Uphill Battles of the Porter Sisters: Jane and Maria Porter wrote wildly successful historical novels that were cribbed by Walter Scott, but they never found financial security and only now have received their first biography. Review of: Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës / Devoney Looser.
Ed Park. Deprivation Exercises. Review of: The Illiterate / Ágota Kristóf, translated from the French by Nina Bogin, with an introduction by Helen Oyeyemi and an afterword by Gabriel Josipovici -- The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie: Three Novels / Ágota Kristóf, translated from the French by Alan Sheridan, David Watson, and Marc Romano -- Ágota Kristóf: Collected Plays / translated from the French by Bart Smet.
Arts
Larry Wolff. The Ambivalences of ‘Don Giovanni.’ Review of: Don Giovanni Captured: Performance, Media, Myth / Richard Will -- Don Giovanni an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Ivo van Hove, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, May 5–June 2, 2023.
Julian Bell. Opulence and Humility: An exhibition devoted to Saint Francis forms a doorway between artistic tradition and the wider terrain of spirituality. (Essay)
Andrew O'Hagan. Scorpion Party. Review of: Succession an HBO television series created by Jesse Armstrong -- Succession—Season One: The Complete Scripts / Jesse Armstrong -- (and Armstrong's complete scripts for seasons 2-4)
Science & Natural History
James Gleick. Nothing to See Here: For centuries the study of optics and the use of invisibility in science fiction have developed side by side, each inspiring the other. Review of: Invisibility: The History and Science of How Not to Be Seen / Gregory J. Gbur -- Transparency: The Material History of an Idea / Daniel Jütte.
Michelle Nijhuis. The Nature Trade. Review of: Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America / Dan Flores -- The Market in Birds: Commercial Hunting, Conservation, and the Origins of Wildlife Consumerism, 1850–1920 / Andrea L. Smalley with Henry M. Reeves.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Madelin Schwartz. Whack-a-Rat: The rats of Paris have presented their human neighbors with centuries of complex problems, and now face a controversial future. Review of: Les Rats de Paris: Une brève histoire de l’infamie (1800–1939) = The Rats of Paris: A Brief History of Infamy (1800–1939) / Hécate Vergopoulos -- Les Rats sont entrés dans Paris = The Rats Have Entered Paris / Olivier Thomas.
Sean Wilentz. American Carnage. Review of: Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism / Jeffrey Toobin.
Laurence Tribe. Constrain the Court—Without Crippling It: Critics of the Supreme Court think it has lost its claim to legitimacy. But proposals for reforming it must strike a balance with preserving its power and independence, which remain essential to our constitutional system. Review of: Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences / Joan Biskupic -- The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America / Michael Waldman -- Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People / Jamin B. Raskin -- The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic / Stephen Vladeck -- Supreme Hubris: How Overconfidence Is Destroying the Court—and How We Can Fix It / Aaron Tang.
Agam Getachew. Africa, the Center of History. Review of: Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War / Howard W. French.
Ursula Lindsey. Lebanon’s Chernobyl. Review of: My Port of Beirut / Lamia Ziadé, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan.
Joanna Biggs. Acts of Accompaniment. Review of: Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice / Cristina Rivera Garza.
Gary Younge. Arriving Without Belonging. Review of: I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be: A Memoir in Eight Lives / Colin Grant.
Online Addenda:
FT. 08/05/2023: Incomparable. Review of the documentary Nothing Compares about Sinéad O’Connor.
Fintan O'Toole. 08/04/2023: Invasion of the Democracy Snatchers: This week’s indictment details how Trump and his co-conspirators tried to destroy American democracy by creating empty replicas of its procedures and values. (Essay)
Literature
Ange Mlinko. Wonder Cabinets of the Mind: an encyclopedic poem that captures the immense experience of working, and being, at the Met. Review of: Information Desk: An Epic / Robyn Schiff.
Clare Bucknell. The Uphill Battles of the Porter Sisters: Jane and Maria Porter wrote wildly successful historical novels that were cribbed by Walter Scott, but they never found financial security and only now have received their first biography. Review of: Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës / Devoney Looser.
Ed Park. Deprivation Exercises. Review of: The Illiterate / Ágota Kristóf, translated from the French by Nina Bogin, with an introduction by Helen Oyeyemi and an afterword by Gabriel Josipovici -- The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie: Three Novels / Ágota Kristóf, translated from the French by Alan Sheridan, David Watson, and Marc Romano -- Ágota Kristóf: Collected Plays / translated from the French by Bart Smet.
Arts
Larry Wolff. The Ambivalences of ‘Don Giovanni.’ Review of: Don Giovanni Captured: Performance, Media, Myth / Richard Will -- Don Giovanni an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, directed by Ivo van Hove, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, May 5–June 2, 2023.
Julian Bell. Opulence and Humility: An exhibition devoted to Saint Francis forms a doorway between artistic tradition and the wider terrain of spirituality. (Essay)
Andrew O'Hagan. Scorpion Party. Review of: Succession an HBO television series created by Jesse Armstrong -- Succession—Season One: The Complete Scripts / Jesse Armstrong -- (and Armstrong's complete scripts for seasons 2-4)
Science & Natural History
James Gleick. Nothing to See Here: For centuries the study of optics and the use of invisibility in science fiction have developed side by side, each inspiring the other. Review of: Invisibility: The History and Science of How Not to Be Seen / Gregory J. Gbur -- Transparency: The Material History of an Idea / Daniel Jütte.
Michelle Nijhuis. The Nature Trade. Review of: Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America / Dan Flores -- The Market in Birds: Commercial Hunting, Conservation, and the Origins of Wildlife Consumerism, 1850–1920 / Andrea L. Smalley with Henry M. Reeves.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Madelin Schwartz. Whack-a-Rat: The rats of Paris have presented their human neighbors with centuries of complex problems, and now face a controversial future. Review of: Les Rats de Paris: Une brève histoire de l’infamie (1800–1939) = The Rats of Paris: A Brief History of Infamy (1800–1939) / Hécate Vergopoulos -- Les Rats sont entrés dans Paris = The Rats Have Entered Paris / Olivier Thomas.
Sean Wilentz. American Carnage. Review of: Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism / Jeffrey Toobin.
Laurence Tribe. Constrain the Court—Without Crippling It: Critics of the Supreme Court think it has lost its claim to legitimacy. But proposals for reforming it must strike a balance with preserving its power and independence, which remain essential to our constitutional system. Review of: Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences / Joan Biskupic -- The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America / Michael Waldman -- Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People / Jamin B. Raskin -- The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic / Stephen Vladeck -- Supreme Hubris: How Overconfidence Is Destroying the Court—and How We Can Fix It / Aaron Tang.
Agam Getachew. Africa, the Center of History. Review of: Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War / Howard W. French.
Ursula Lindsey. Lebanon’s Chernobyl. Review of: My Port of Beirut / Lamia Ziadé, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan.
Joanna Biggs. Acts of Accompaniment. Review of: Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice / Cristina Rivera Garza.
Gary Younge. Arriving Without Belonging. Review of: I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be: A Memoir in Eight Lives / Colin Grant.
Online Addenda:
FT. 08/05/2023: Incomparable. Review of the documentary Nothing Compares about Sinéad O’Connor.
Fintan O'Toole. 08/04/2023: Invasion of the Democracy Snatchers: This week’s indictment details how Trump and his co-conspirators tried to destroy American democracy by creating empty replicas of its procedures and values. (Essay)
28featherbear
Jonardon Ganeri. Aeon, 07/17/2023: Solace and saudade: In the face of an inscrutable, indifferent universe, Pessoa suggests we cultivate a certain longing for the elusive horizon.
29featherbear
Becca Rothfeld. WaPo, 07/28/2023: The new conservative arguments for an un-modern America. Review of: Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future / Patrick J. Deneen -- Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty--and What to Do About It / Sohrab Ahmari.
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Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 08/01/2023: 2023 Booker longlist includes ‘If I Survive You’ and ‘This Other Eden.’
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Becca Rothfeld. WaPo, 08/04/2023: ‘The Marriage Question’ looks at George Eliot through her long-lasting love. Review of: The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life / Clare Carlisle.
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Harilaos Stecopoulos. Public Books, 08/02/2023: B-SIDES: Joyce Carol Oates's “Them."
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Elizabeth A. Harris, Lauren Hirsch and Benjamin Mullin. NYT, 08/07/2023: Paramount Agrees to Sell Simon & Schuster to KKR, a Private Equity Firm. "The deal, for $1.62 billion, will put control of a cultural touchstone in the hands of a financial buyer."
Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 08/07/2023: Simon & Schuster acquired by private equity firm KKR. "Paramount’s previous attempt to sell the company to Penguin Random House failed after a federal judge blocked the deal last year."
Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 08/07/2023: Simon & Schuster acquired by private equity firm KKR. "Paramount’s previous attempt to sell the company to Penguin Random House failed after a federal judge blocked the deal last year."
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TLS August 11, 2023|No. 6280
Features
Eileen M. Hunt. The road to 1984: The evolution of Orwell’s political views and his treatment of women. Review of: George Orwell and Russia / Masha Karp -- The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and war / Peter Stansky -- George Orwell's Perverse Humanity: Socialism and free speech / Glenn Burgess -- Orwell: the new life / D.J. Taylor -- The Orwell Tour: Travels through the life and work of George Orwell / Oliver Lewis.
Krishan Kumar. This is Britain: Differing attitudes to race across the Atlantic divide. Review of: Settlers: Journeys through the food, faith and culture of Black African London / Jimi Famurewa -- How To Be a Patriot: Why love of country can end our very British culture war / Sunder Katwala -- This Is Not America: Why Black lives in Britain matter / Tomiwa Owolade.
Emily Baughan. Love sick: How ‘welfare nationalism’ sustains and threatens the NHS. Review of: Our NHS: A history of Britain’s best-loved institution / Andrew Seaton.
Lara Pawson. Rules that treat you like idiots: A verbatim theatre account of the Grenfell fire, six years on. Review of: Gillian Slovo's Grenfell: in the words of the survivors, National Theatre, until August 26.
Literature & Language
Anna Aslanyan. Speaking in tongues: The effects of multilingualism on the human brain. Review of: The Power of Language: Multilingualism, self and society / Viorica Marian.
Ritchie Robertson. They capture The Castle: The husband and wife who translated Kafka and other German masters. Review of: Edwin and Willa Muir: A literary marriage / Margery Palmer McCulloch -- The Usurpers: a novel / Willa Muir, with an introduction by Jim Potts.
Paul Quinn. Code-breakers: A cinematic tour of Hollywood before a puritanical purge. Review of: Arabian Nights of 1934 / Geoffrey
O’Brien.
Elizabeth Lowry. Revisiting the cherry orchard: A play on Chekhov, with a Midwestern twist. Review of: Tom Lake / Ann Patchett.
Keith Miller. A big book about a little guy: The third instalment of Adam Mars-Jones’s Bildungsroman. Review of: Caret / Adam Mars-Jones.
In Brief Review of: The Vortex That Unites Us: Versions of totality in Russian literature / Jacob Emery.
In Brief Review of: Y/N / Esther Yi.
In Brief Review of: Pearl / Siân Hughes
Poetry
Dominic Leonard. Of immanence or incarnation: A collection about intimacy on the cusp of parenthood. Review of: Plot / Claudia Rankine.
April Yee. Close-ups of passports: An Asian American poet on belonging. Review of: From from / Monica Youn.
James Conor Paterson. In the face of catastrophe: Poetry of exploration and explosion. Review of: Up Late / Nick Laird.
In Brief Review of: Umberto Saba: 100 poems / Edited and translated by Patrick Worsnip.
Arts
Lucy Scholes. At the Box office: The compelling work of one of Britain’s great female directors. Review of films of British director Muriel Box: The Passionate Stranger. The Truth About Women. Rattle of a Simple Man, Vintage Classics, Blu-ray or DVD.
Philosophy
Alex Moran. Luxe, calme, tranquillité: The Epicurean search for happiness and serenity. Review of: Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean guide to life / Emily A. Austin.
Religion
Ash Cocksworth. Complaint to God: The theory and practice of prayer. Review of: Analyzing Prayer: Theological and philosophical essays / Oliver D. Crisp, James M. Arcadi and Jordan Wessling, editors.
Mary C. Flannery. Visions from her cell: A ‘fictional autobiography’ of Julian of Norwich. Review of: I, Julian / Claire Gilbert.
Irina Dumritescu. Travelling hopefully: Broadening minds or bad for the soul? (Essay)
Science & Technology
Barbara J. King. Octopus’s garden: The secret life of an extraordinary creature. Review of: Many Things Under a Rock: the mysteries of octopuses / David Scheel.
George McGavin. Moths and men: The variety and profusion of a successful species. Review of: Meetings with Moths: Discovering their mystery and extraordinary lives / Katty Baird -- The Jewel Box: How moths illuminate nature’s hidden rules / Tim Blackburn.
David Barrie. The long haul: On the scientific techniques used to follow migratory birds. Review of: Flight Paths: How the mystery of bird migration was solved / Rebecca Heisman.
History, Politics, & Society
Caroline Eden. Drenched in blood and sorrow: Beauty and terror on a four-month trek across the Caucasus. Review of: High Caucasus: A mountain quest in Russia’s haunted hinterland / Tom Parfitt.
William Schomberg. A golden age in peril?: The threat to Spain from regional nationalism. Review of: Spain: The trials and triumphs of a modern European country / Michael Reid.
T.H. Breen. Birth of the American Dream: Great minds who pursued Jefferson’s ideal. Review of: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream 1740–1776 / Peter Moore.
Keith M. Brown. In bed with an elephant: An anachronistic account of English nationalism. Review of: Internal Empire: The rise and fall of English imperialism / Victor Bulmer-Thomas.
Lucy Lethbridge. It’s only for looking at: The collapse of working rural communities. Review of: Rural: The lives of the working class countryside / Rebecca Smith.
In Brief Review of: Echolands: A journey in search of Boudica / Duncan McKay.
In Brief Review of: The Ghost Forest: Racists, radicals, and real estate in the California redwoods / Greg King.
In Brief Review of: Dispatches From the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter / Gary Younge.
Features
Eileen M. Hunt. The road to 1984: The evolution of Orwell’s political views and his treatment of women. Review of: George Orwell and Russia / Masha Karp -- The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and war / Peter Stansky -- George Orwell's Perverse Humanity: Socialism and free speech / Glenn Burgess -- Orwell: the new life / D.J. Taylor -- The Orwell Tour: Travels through the life and work of George Orwell / Oliver Lewis.
Krishan Kumar. This is Britain: Differing attitudes to race across the Atlantic divide. Review of: Settlers: Journeys through the food, faith and culture of Black African London / Jimi Famurewa -- How To Be a Patriot: Why love of country can end our very British culture war / Sunder Katwala -- This Is Not America: Why Black lives in Britain matter / Tomiwa Owolade.
Emily Baughan. Love sick: How ‘welfare nationalism’ sustains and threatens the NHS. Review of: Our NHS: A history of Britain’s best-loved institution / Andrew Seaton.
Lara Pawson. Rules that treat you like idiots: A verbatim theatre account of the Grenfell fire, six years on. Review of: Gillian Slovo's Grenfell: in the words of the survivors, National Theatre, until August 26.
Literature & Language
Anna Aslanyan. Speaking in tongues: The effects of multilingualism on the human brain. Review of: The Power of Language: Multilingualism, self and society / Viorica Marian.
Ritchie Robertson. They capture The Castle: The husband and wife who translated Kafka and other German masters. Review of: Edwin and Willa Muir: A literary marriage / Margery Palmer McCulloch -- The Usurpers: a novel / Willa Muir, with an introduction by Jim Potts.
Paul Quinn. Code-breakers: A cinematic tour of Hollywood before a puritanical purge. Review of: Arabian Nights of 1934 / Geoffrey
O’Brien.
Elizabeth Lowry. Revisiting the cherry orchard: A play on Chekhov, with a Midwestern twist. Review of: Tom Lake / Ann Patchett.
Keith Miller. A big book about a little guy: The third instalment of Adam Mars-Jones’s Bildungsroman. Review of: Caret / Adam Mars-Jones.
In Brief Review of: The Vortex That Unites Us: Versions of totality in Russian literature / Jacob Emery.
In Brief Review of: Y/N / Esther Yi.
In Brief Review of: Pearl / Siân Hughes
Poetry
Dominic Leonard. Of immanence or incarnation: A collection about intimacy on the cusp of parenthood. Review of: Plot / Claudia Rankine.
April Yee. Close-ups of passports: An Asian American poet on belonging. Review of: From from / Monica Youn.
James Conor Paterson. In the face of catastrophe: Poetry of exploration and explosion. Review of: Up Late / Nick Laird.
In Brief Review of: Umberto Saba: 100 poems / Edited and translated by Patrick Worsnip.
Arts
Lucy Scholes. At the Box office: The compelling work of one of Britain’s great female directors. Review of films of British director Muriel Box: The Passionate Stranger. The Truth About Women. Rattle of a Simple Man, Vintage Classics, Blu-ray or DVD.
Philosophy
Alex Moran. Luxe, calme, tranquillité: The Epicurean search for happiness and serenity. Review of: Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean guide to life / Emily A. Austin.
Religion
Ash Cocksworth. Complaint to God: The theory and practice of prayer. Review of: Analyzing Prayer: Theological and philosophical essays / Oliver D. Crisp, James M. Arcadi and Jordan Wessling, editors.
Mary C. Flannery. Visions from her cell: A ‘fictional autobiography’ of Julian of Norwich. Review of: I, Julian / Claire Gilbert.
Irina Dumritescu. Travelling hopefully: Broadening minds or bad for the soul? (Essay)
Science & Technology
Barbara J. King. Octopus’s garden: The secret life of an extraordinary creature. Review of: Many Things Under a Rock: the mysteries of octopuses / David Scheel.
George McGavin. Moths and men: The variety and profusion of a successful species. Review of: Meetings with Moths: Discovering their mystery and extraordinary lives / Katty Baird -- The Jewel Box: How moths illuminate nature’s hidden rules / Tim Blackburn.
David Barrie. The long haul: On the scientific techniques used to follow migratory birds. Review of: Flight Paths: How the mystery of bird migration was solved / Rebecca Heisman.
History, Politics, & Society
Caroline Eden. Drenched in blood and sorrow: Beauty and terror on a four-month trek across the Caucasus. Review of: High Caucasus: A mountain quest in Russia’s haunted hinterland / Tom Parfitt.
William Schomberg. A golden age in peril?: The threat to Spain from regional nationalism. Review of: Spain: The trials and triumphs of a modern European country / Michael Reid.
T.H. Breen. Birth of the American Dream: Great minds who pursued Jefferson’s ideal. Review of: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream 1740–1776 / Peter Moore.
Keith M. Brown. In bed with an elephant: An anachronistic account of English nationalism. Review of: Internal Empire: The rise and fall of English imperialism / Victor Bulmer-Thomas.
Lucy Lethbridge. It’s only for looking at: The collapse of working rural communities. Review of: Rural: The lives of the working class countryside / Rebecca Smith.
In Brief Review of: Echolands: A journey in search of Boudica / Duncan McKay.
In Brief Review of: The Ghost Forest: Racists, radicals, and real estate in the California redwoods / Greg King.
In Brief Review of: Dispatches From the Diaspora: From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter / Gary Younge.
35featherbear
Fabio Fernandes. Aeon, 08/04/2023: The great libraries of Rome.
36featherbear
"In this post-Fleabag world, publishing has become obsessed with the inner turmoils of messy millennials – but isn’t it time they pulled themselves together? Meet the novelists subverting the cliches"
Sarah Manavis. The Guardian, 08/07/2023: ‘A smorgasbord of unlikability’: the authors helping ‘sad girl lit’ grow up.
Sarah Manavis. The Guardian, 08/07/2023: ‘A smorgasbord of unlikability’: the authors helping ‘sad girl lit’ grow up.
37featherbear
Literary Review Aug. 2023
Tim Whitmarsh. War Music. Review of: Homer and his Iliad / Robin Lane Fox.
Sarah Dunant. Shopping and Plucking. Review of: How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity / Jill Burke and the exhibition Painted Love: Renaissance Marriage PortraitsHolburne Museum, Bath, until 1 October.
David Edgerton. Curse of Cane. Review of: The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years / Ulbe Bosma.
Damian Le Bas. Home Is Where the Hatred Is. Review of: Europe and the Roma: A History of Fascination and Fear / Klaus-Michael Bogdal -- Travellers through Time: A Gypsy History / Jeremy Harte.
Nicholas Barber. Demolition Men. Review of: The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage / Nick de Semlyen.
Paul Genders. Observation Points. Review of: Carets / Adam Mars-Jones.
Tim Whitmarsh. War Music. Review of: Homer and his Iliad / Robin Lane Fox.
Sarah Dunant. Shopping and Plucking. Review of: How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity / Jill Burke and the exhibition Painted Love: Renaissance Marriage PortraitsHolburne Museum, Bath, until 1 October.
David Edgerton. Curse of Cane. Review of: The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years / Ulbe Bosma.
Damian Le Bas. Home Is Where the Hatred Is. Review of: Europe and the Roma: A History of Fascination and Fear / Klaus-Michael Bogdal -- Travellers through Time: A Gypsy History / Jeremy Harte.
Nicholas Barber. Demolition Men. Review of: The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage / Nick de Semlyen.
Paul Genders. Observation Points. Review of: Carets / Adam Mars-Jones.
38featherbear
"Once at the center of the murder mystery, the cadaver has become increasingly incidental to the action and now figures as little more than a prop."
Amor Towles. NYT, 08/10/2023: The Corpse in the Library.
Amor Towles. NYT, 08/10/2023: The Corpse in the Library.
39featherbear
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. New Yorker, 08/11/2023: The Disciplining Power of Disappointment. Review of: Political Disappointment: A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis / Sara Marcus.
40featherbear
"Paul Brodeur, who wrote evocative, richly detailed short stories and novels but was best-known for his crusading environmental journalism in the pages of the New Yorker, notably in articles that helped expose the health hazards of asbestos and the danger that industrial chemicals posed to the ozone layer, died Aug. 2 at a hospital in Hyannis, Mass. "
Harrison Smith. WaPo, 08/10/2023: Paul Brodeur, journalist who exposed asbestos hazards, dies at 92.
Harrison Smith. WaPo, 08/10/2023: Paul Brodeur, journalist who exposed asbestos hazards, dies at 92.
41featherbear
Sonja Drimmer. Public Books, 08/09/2023: Slanting the History of Handwriting. Review of: A Writing Studies Primer / Joyce Kinkead -- Handwriting in Early America: A Media History / Mark Alan Mattes.
42featherbear
"Large language models are disrupting the publishing industry, from spam submissions to garbage books."
Constance Grady. Vox, 08/12/2023: Publishing scammers are using AI to scale their grifts.
Constance Grady. Vox, 08/12/2023: Publishing scammers are using AI to scale their grifts.
43featherbear
"Conspiracy theories, provocations, baseless accusations… long before our clickbait era, women in pre-revolutionary France were the subject of salacious attacks. Their response offers hope for us all."
Adam Thirlwell. Guardian, 08/12/2023: ‘We’re gripped by graphomania’: why writing became an online contagion and how we can contain it.
Adam Thirlwell. Guardian, 08/12/2023: ‘We’re gripped by graphomania’: why writing became an online contagion and how we can contain it.
44featherbear
"Chantal Johnson’s debut novel, Post-Traumatic, makes the case that we can—by moving away from representations of individual suffering."
Ann Krauthamer. Boston Review, 08/11/2023: Can We Still Write about Trauma?
Ann Krauthamer. Boston Review, 08/11/2023: Can We Still Write about Trauma?
45featherbear
"To succeed—to get people to care about preserving the world—it can’t be only about nature."
Jonathan Franzen. New Yorker, 08/12/2023: The Problem of Nature Writing.
Jonathan Franzen. New Yorker, 08/12/2023: The Problem of Nature Writing.
46featherbear
The Critic, August/September 2023 (for the most part)
Victor Sebestyen. Why central Europe has always mattered. Review of: The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe / Martyn Rady.
Daniel Johnson. A brilliant biography of an elusive genius. Review of: Spinoza: life and legacy / Jonathan I. Israel.
Michael Taube. Bastards of the fleet. Review of: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder / David Gram.
Alexander Lee. The deep humanity of books. Review of: The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club / Christopher de Hamel.
Christopher Snowdon. Who’s afraid of UPF? (Part 1). Review of: Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? / Chris van Tulleken.
Christopher Snowdon. 08/08/2023: Who’s afraid of UPF? (Part 2).
Charlie Bentley-Astor. Deconstructing the decolonisers. Review of: Against Decolonisation: Campus Culture Wars and the Decline of the West / Doug Stokes.
Andy Owen. 08/04/2023: Liberalism’s obituarist. Review of: The New Leviathans / John Gray.
Victor Sebestyen. Why central Europe has always mattered. Review of: The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe / Martyn Rady.
Daniel Johnson. A brilliant biography of an elusive genius. Review of: Spinoza: life and legacy / Jonathan I. Israel.
Michael Taube. Bastards of the fleet. Review of: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder / David Gram.
Alexander Lee. The deep humanity of books. Review of: The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club / Christopher de Hamel.
Christopher Snowdon. Who’s afraid of UPF? (Part 1). Review of: Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? / Chris van Tulleken.
Christopher Snowdon. 08/08/2023: Who’s afraid of UPF? (Part 2).
Charlie Bentley-Astor. Deconstructing the decolonisers. Review of: Against Decolonisation: Campus Culture Wars and the Decline of the West / Doug Stokes.
Andy Owen. 08/04/2023: Liberalism’s obituarist. Review of: The New Leviathans / John Gray.
47featherbear
"With mounting signs that the Federal Trade Commission is preparing to file a lawsuit against Amazon for violating antitrust laws, a group of booksellers, authors and antitrust activists are urging the government to investigate the company’s domination of the book market."
Alexandra Alter. NYT, 08/16/2023: Authors and Booksellers Urge Justice Dept. to Investigate Amazon.
Alexandra Alter. NYT, 08/16/2023: Authors and Booksellers Urge Justice Dept. to Investigate Amazon.
48featherbear
TLS August 18 / 25, 2023|No. 6281/2
Featured
Susanna Johnston. Other Alices: A fresh journey through the looking-glass. (Essay)
Andrew Preston. I alone can fix it: Two presidents become the subjects of psychological analysis. Review of: The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt and the lost psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson / Patrick Weil -- On Nixon's Madness: An emotional history / Zachary Jonathan Jacobson.
Charles Foster. From the edge: Three parents write about the death of a child. Review of: Elowen: A story of grief and love / William Henry Searle -- God Is an Octopus: Loss, love and a calling to nature / Ben Goldsmith -- When Grief Equals Love: Long-term perspectives on living with loss / Lizzie Pickering.
Amber Massie-Blomfield. Something to be done: Susan Sontag’s production of Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, thirty years on. (Essay)
Literature
Alison Kelly. Winner takes all: A collection of short stories where no subject is off limits. Review of: Zero-Sum / Joyce Carol Oates.
Lucasta Miller. Bullets over Soho: Mastering the relationship between words and the world. Review of: Normal Rules Don't Apply / Kate Atkinson.
Jonathan Gibbs. Funny little snake: Jamesian short stories with a ‘weightless’ turn. Review of: After the funeral / Tessa Hadley -- From Far Around They Saw Us Burn / Alice Jolly.
George Cochrane. Sympathy for the outcast: Tales of virtual vampires and Welsh seahorses. Review of: Open Up / Thomas Morris.
Heather Cass White. Fascinating rhythm: ‘Provocative patterns’ within the constraints of flash fiction. Review of: I Hear You're Rich / Diane Williams.
Beci Carver. You’ll be fairies soon: Reading the modernists through an ‘occult’ lens. Review of: The Sacred Life of Modernist Literature: Immanence, occultism, and the making of the modern world / Allan Kilner-Johnson.
Ian Sansom. A taste for literature: Why kebab shops are like libraries. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Capote’s Women: A true story of love, ambition and betrayal / Laurence Leamer.
In Brief Review of: Modernist Literary Collaborations Between Men and Women / Russell McDonald.
In Brief Review of: Mild Vertigo / Mieko Kanai; translated by Polly Barton.
In Brief Review of: Tabula Rasa volume 1 / John McPhee.
Arts
Caroline Vouts. To stand and adore: The consolations of art, documented by a guard at the Met. Review of: All the Beauty in the World: A museum guard’s adventures in life, loss and art / Patrick Bringley.
Hettie Judah. The devil in the house: Women who have made art in defiance of the rules. Review of: Art Monsters: Unruly bodies in feminist art / Lauren Elkin.
Sophie Oliver. Teasing a butterfly: Mina Loy’s search for ‘an alternative order of things.’ Review of the exhibition Mina Loy: Strangeness is inevitable, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, until September 17.
Guy Dammann. A stage of their own: Virginia Woolf is the inspiration for a female Finnish composer. Review of Outi Tarkiainen's opera A Room of One's Own, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland -- and the book: Suzuki: The man and his dream to teach the children of the world / Eri Hotta.
Science and Technology
Richard Sennett. Wild cards: Why achieving ‘balance’ in urban nature is becoming ever more unlikely. Review of: Wild City: Encounters with urban wildlife / Florence Wilkinson -- Urban Jungle: Wilding the city / Ben Wilson -- Secret Life of the City: How nature thrives in the urban wild / Hanna Bjørgaas; translated by Matt Bagguley.
In Brief Review of: Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The dark history of the Information Age, in five extraordinary hacks / Scott J. Shapiro.
In Brief Review of: The Jay, the Beech and the Limpetshell: Finding wild things with my kids / Richard Smyth.
History, Politics, & Society
Wendy Moore. Five to midnight: A dementia sufferer plans for the end of her life. Review of: One Last Thing: How to live with the end in mind / Wendy Mitchell, with Anna Wharton.
Sarah Knott. Either carrying or nursing: How the Victorians talked about pregnancy and birth. Review of: Confinement: The hidden history of maternal bodies in nineteenth-century Britain / Jessica Cox.
Michael Kulikowski. The first citizen: Certain imperial roles and attributes endured over 600 years of Roman history. Review of: Caesar Rules: The emperor in the changing Roman world (c.50BC-AD565) / Olivier Hekster.
Andrew Hadfield. Fool’s errand: A study of Will Somer, a ‘shadowy’ intimate of Henry VIII. Review of: Fool: In search of Henry VIII’s closest man / Peter K. Andersson.
Sebastian Dows-Miller. A thing of shreds and patches: Minstrelsy from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Review of: Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England / Richard Rastall with Andrew Taylor.
Caroline Moorehead. A diplomatic mission: The officials who issued false documents to help Jews during the Holocaust. Review of: The Forgers: The forgotten story of the Holocaust’s most audacious rescue operation / Roger Moorhouse.
Robert Bevan. Beowulf to steampunk: The gap between England’s idea of itself and the reality. Review of: Imagining England’s Past: Inspiration, enchantment, obsession / Susan Owens -- About England / David Matless -- The Full English: A journey in search of a country and its people / Stuart Maconie.
In Brief Review of: The Politics and Poetics of Everyday Life / Kristin Ross.
Featured
Susanna Johnston. Other Alices: A fresh journey through the looking-glass. (Essay)
Andrew Preston. I alone can fix it: Two presidents become the subjects of psychological analysis. Review of: The Madman in the White House: Sigmund Freud, Ambassador Bullitt and the lost psychobiography of Woodrow Wilson / Patrick Weil -- On Nixon's Madness: An emotional history / Zachary Jonathan Jacobson.
Charles Foster. From the edge: Three parents write about the death of a child. Review of: Elowen: A story of grief and love / William Henry Searle -- God Is an Octopus: Loss, love and a calling to nature / Ben Goldsmith -- When Grief Equals Love: Long-term perspectives on living with loss / Lizzie Pickering.
Amber Massie-Blomfield. Something to be done: Susan Sontag’s production of Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, thirty years on. (Essay)
Literature
Alison Kelly. Winner takes all: A collection of short stories where no subject is off limits. Review of: Zero-Sum / Joyce Carol Oates.
Lucasta Miller. Bullets over Soho: Mastering the relationship between words and the world. Review of: Normal Rules Don't Apply / Kate Atkinson.
Jonathan Gibbs. Funny little snake: Jamesian short stories with a ‘weightless’ turn. Review of: After the funeral / Tessa Hadley -- From Far Around They Saw Us Burn / Alice Jolly.
George Cochrane. Sympathy for the outcast: Tales of virtual vampires and Welsh seahorses. Review of: Open Up / Thomas Morris.
Heather Cass White. Fascinating rhythm: ‘Provocative patterns’ within the constraints of flash fiction. Review of: I Hear You're Rich / Diane Williams.
Beci Carver. You’ll be fairies soon: Reading the modernists through an ‘occult’ lens. Review of: The Sacred Life of Modernist Literature: Immanence, occultism, and the making of the modern world / Allan Kilner-Johnson.
Ian Sansom. A taste for literature: Why kebab shops are like libraries. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Capote’s Women: A true story of love, ambition and betrayal / Laurence Leamer.
In Brief Review of: Modernist Literary Collaborations Between Men and Women / Russell McDonald.
In Brief Review of: Mild Vertigo / Mieko Kanai; translated by Polly Barton.
In Brief Review of: Tabula Rasa volume 1 / John McPhee.
Arts
Caroline Vouts. To stand and adore: The consolations of art, documented by a guard at the Met. Review of: All the Beauty in the World: A museum guard’s adventures in life, loss and art / Patrick Bringley.
Hettie Judah. The devil in the house: Women who have made art in defiance of the rules. Review of: Art Monsters: Unruly bodies in feminist art / Lauren Elkin.
Sophie Oliver. Teasing a butterfly: Mina Loy’s search for ‘an alternative order of things.’ Review of the exhibition Mina Loy: Strangeness is inevitable, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, until September 17.
Guy Dammann. A stage of their own: Virginia Woolf is the inspiration for a female Finnish composer. Review of Outi Tarkiainen's opera A Room of One's Own, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland -- and the book: Suzuki: The man and his dream to teach the children of the world / Eri Hotta.
Science and Technology
Richard Sennett. Wild cards: Why achieving ‘balance’ in urban nature is becoming ever more unlikely. Review of: Wild City: Encounters with urban wildlife / Florence Wilkinson -- Urban Jungle: Wilding the city / Ben Wilson -- Secret Life of the City: How nature thrives in the urban wild / Hanna Bjørgaas; translated by Matt Bagguley.
In Brief Review of: Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The dark history of the Information Age, in five extraordinary hacks / Scott J. Shapiro.
In Brief Review of: The Jay, the Beech and the Limpetshell: Finding wild things with my kids / Richard Smyth.
History, Politics, & Society
Wendy Moore. Five to midnight: A dementia sufferer plans for the end of her life. Review of: One Last Thing: How to live with the end in mind / Wendy Mitchell, with Anna Wharton.
Sarah Knott. Either carrying or nursing: How the Victorians talked about pregnancy and birth. Review of: Confinement: The hidden history of maternal bodies in nineteenth-century Britain / Jessica Cox.
Michael Kulikowski. The first citizen: Certain imperial roles and attributes endured over 600 years of Roman history. Review of: Caesar Rules: The emperor in the changing Roman world (c.50BC-AD565) / Olivier Hekster.
Andrew Hadfield. Fool’s errand: A study of Will Somer, a ‘shadowy’ intimate of Henry VIII. Review of: Fool: In search of Henry VIII’s closest man / Peter K. Andersson.
Sebastian Dows-Miller. A thing of shreds and patches: Minstrelsy from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Review of: Minstrels and Minstrelsy in Late Medieval England / Richard Rastall with Andrew Taylor.
Caroline Moorehead. A diplomatic mission: The officials who issued false documents to help Jews during the Holocaust. Review of: The Forgers: The forgotten story of the Holocaust’s most audacious rescue operation / Roger Moorhouse.
Robert Bevan. Beowulf to steampunk: The gap between England’s idea of itself and the reality. Review of: Imagining England’s Past: Inspiration, enchantment, obsession / Susan Owens -- About England / David Matless -- The Full English: A journey in search of a country and its people / Stuart Maconie.
In Brief Review of: The Politics and Poetics of Everyday Life / Kristin Ross.
49featherbear
Rachel M. Cohen. Vox, 08/15/2023: The new “science of reading” movement, explained.
50featherbear
Recent book reviews or about book reviews from The Critic August/Sept.
James Barr. A stirring tale of delicious complexity: From the Mongols’ conquest of Persia to their defeat by the Mamluks. Review of: The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East / Nicholas Morton.
The Secret Author. What book blurbs really mean.
James Barr. A stirring tale of delicious complexity: From the Mongols’ conquest of Persia to their defeat by the Mamluks. Review of: The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East / Nicholas Morton.
The Secret Author. What book blurbs really mean.
51featherbear
Recently on WaPo:
Michael Dirda. 08/24/2023: ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ is a classic, but it’s not beyond criticism. On a new translation of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov by Michael R. Katz.
Gabe Bullard. 08/22/2023: Moving books is a big pain. Here’s how to make it easier.. "The most efficient ways to pack them, how to ensure they aren’t damaged — and tips for easing the pain of culling your collection."
Meena Venkataramanan. 08/23/2023: This scholar is pulling back the curtain on race in Shakespeare. "Farah Karim-Cooper argues that the Bard has a race problem. But that doesn’t mean we have to love him less."
Praveena Somasundaram. School board censures trustee after she allegedly sneaked into library. "Trustee Karen Lowery stealthily went into a dark library to allegedly inspect a high school’s books, according to a report."
Michael Dirda. 08/24/2023: ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ is a classic, but it’s not beyond criticism. On a new translation of Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov by Michael R. Katz.
Gabe Bullard. 08/22/2023: Moving books is a big pain. Here’s how to make it easier.. "The most efficient ways to pack them, how to ensure they aren’t damaged — and tips for easing the pain of culling your collection."
Meena Venkataramanan. 08/23/2023: This scholar is pulling back the curtain on race in Shakespeare. "Farah Karim-Cooper argues that the Bard has a race problem. But that doesn’t mean we have to love him less."
Praveena Somasundaram. School board censures trustee after she allegedly sneaked into library. "Trustee Karen Lowery stealthily went into a dark library to allegedly inspect a high school’s books, according to a report."
52featherbear
TLS September 1, 2023|No. 6283
Featured:
Nicola Shulman. Humble drudges: The unlikely men and women behind the famous dictionary. Review of: The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary / Sarah Oglivie.
Hirsh Sawney. Parallel lives: Challenging the idea of ‘mutual belligerence’ between India and Pakistan. Review of: Shadows at Noon: The South Asian twentieth century / Joya Chatterji.
Richard Lea. Hand of God: Benjamín Labatut’s infernal vision of theoretical physics. Review of: The Maniac / Benjamín Labatut.
Marjorie Perloff. The light that might have been: A decade’s worth of Ben Lerner’s poetry and a new collection. Review of: No art: poems / Ben Lerner -- The Lights / Ben Lerner.
Literature
Molly Clark. I can swim like a duck: Shakespeare quotations for everyday life. Review of: Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for life / Ben Crystal and David Crystal -- The Anatomy of Insults in Shakespeare's World / Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin.
Elizabeth Scott-Baumann. Carpe diem, carpe florem: Early modern Shakespeare anthologies. Review of: Anthologizing Shakespeare: 1593-1603 / Ted Tregear.
Clare Cavanagh. A constant melody: Osip Mandelstam’s tragic fate tends to occlude his poetic genius. Review of: Osip Mandelstam: a biography / Ralph Dutli; translated by Ben Fowkes -- Occasional and joke poems / Osip Mandelstam; translated by Alistair Noon -- The Voronezh Notebooks / Osip Mandelstam; translated by Alistair Noon -- Tristia / Osip Mandelstam; translated by Thomas de Waal.
Norma Clarke. When Anne met Eliza: A slow-burning story of same-sex love in Georgian England. Review of: Learned by Heart / Emma Donoghue.
Francesca Peacock. Decline and fall: Pestilence on a nineteenth-century Mediterranean island. Review of: Strangers at the Port / Lauren Aimee Curtis.
Craig Raine. George Eliot and the poets: Legacies of thefts. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Life is Everywhere: a novel / Lucy Ives.
In Brief Review of: Ford Madox Ford / Max Saunders.
Arts
Lauren Elkin. La force tranquille: A new Life of Gwen John and an exhibition of her work at the Pallant House Gallery. Review of: Gwen John: Art and life in London and Paris / Alicia Foster & the exhibition of the same name, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until October 8.
Philosophy
Nigel Spivey. Lay off the beans: Deriving personal advice from archaic Greek sources. Review of: How to Be: Life lessons from the early Greeks / Adam Nicolson.
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Jeffrey Collins. Well, what do you know?: Histories of learning and forgetting. Review of: Ignorance: a global history / Peter Burke -- Knowing What We Know: The transmission of knowledge: from ancient wisdom to modern magic / Simon Winchester.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Fear eats the soul: How church and state have played upon our terrors. Review of: Fear: An alternative history of the world / Robert Peckham.
Andrew Irwin. More than a meal: Taste, texture and variety in an ancient culinary civilization. Review of: Invitation to a Banquet: The story of Chinese food / Fuchsia Dunlop.
Nigel Saul. Identity politics: The fall of the united kingdom of England and France. Review of: The Hundred Years War Vol 5: Triumph and Illusion / Jonathan Sumption.
Miranda France. Telling details: On attempts to capture people in words. Review of: Lifescapes: A biographer’s search for the soul / Ann Wroe -- The Book of Wonderful Characters / Henry Wilson and James Caulfield.
Lydia Wilson. While Syria burns: The political interests that have prevented western intervention. Review of: Syria Betrayed: Atrocities, war, and the failure of international diplomacy / Alex J. Bellamy.
Caroline Moorehead. A life complete: A grieving daughter looks back at her mother’s activism. Review of: Before the Light Fades: A memoir of grief and resistance / Natasha Walter (a life of Helen Bamber).
In Brief Review of: Places of Tenderness and Heat: The queer milieu of fin-de-siècle St Petersburg / Olga Petri.
In Brief Review of: Galen: Writings on Health: Thrasybulus and Health (De sanitate tuenda) / P.N. Singer.
In Brief Review of: Un Carmen en Granada: Memorias de un hispanista dublinés / Ian Gibson.
In Brief Review of: I Am Still With You: A reckoning with silence, inheritance and history / Emmanuel Iduma.
In Brief Review of: A Visible Man / Edward Enninful,
Featured:
Nicola Shulman. Humble drudges: The unlikely men and women behind the famous dictionary. Review of: The Dictionary People: The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary / Sarah Oglivie.
Hirsh Sawney. Parallel lives: Challenging the idea of ‘mutual belligerence’ between India and Pakistan. Review of: Shadows at Noon: The South Asian twentieth century / Joya Chatterji.
Richard Lea. Hand of God: Benjamín Labatut’s infernal vision of theoretical physics. Review of: The Maniac / Benjamín Labatut.
Marjorie Perloff. The light that might have been: A decade’s worth of Ben Lerner’s poetry and a new collection. Review of: No art: poems / Ben Lerner -- The Lights / Ben Lerner.
Literature
Molly Clark. I can swim like a duck: Shakespeare quotations for everyday life. Review of: Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for life / Ben Crystal and David Crystal -- The Anatomy of Insults in Shakespeare's World / Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin.
Elizabeth Scott-Baumann. Carpe diem, carpe florem: Early modern Shakespeare anthologies. Review of: Anthologizing Shakespeare: 1593-1603 / Ted Tregear.
Clare Cavanagh. A constant melody: Osip Mandelstam’s tragic fate tends to occlude his poetic genius. Review of: Osip Mandelstam: a biography / Ralph Dutli; translated by Ben Fowkes -- Occasional and joke poems / Osip Mandelstam; translated by Alistair Noon -- The Voronezh Notebooks / Osip Mandelstam; translated by Alistair Noon -- Tristia / Osip Mandelstam; translated by Thomas de Waal.
Norma Clarke. When Anne met Eliza: A slow-burning story of same-sex love in Georgian England. Review of: Learned by Heart / Emma Donoghue.
Francesca Peacock. Decline and fall: Pestilence on a nineteenth-century Mediterranean island. Review of: Strangers at the Port / Lauren Aimee Curtis.
Craig Raine. George Eliot and the poets: Legacies of thefts. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: Life is Everywhere: a novel / Lucy Ives.
In Brief Review of: Ford Madox Ford / Max Saunders.
Arts
Lauren Elkin. La force tranquille: A new Life of Gwen John and an exhibition of her work at the Pallant House Gallery. Review of: Gwen John: Art and life in London and Paris / Alicia Foster & the exhibition of the same name, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until October 8.
Philosophy
Nigel Spivey. Lay off the beans: Deriving personal advice from archaic Greek sources. Review of: How to Be: Life lessons from the early Greeks / Adam Nicolson.
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Jeffrey Collins. Well, what do you know?: Histories of learning and forgetting. Review of: Ignorance: a global history / Peter Burke -- Knowing What We Know: The transmission of knowledge: from ancient wisdom to modern magic / Simon Winchester.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Fear eats the soul: How church and state have played upon our terrors. Review of: Fear: An alternative history of the world / Robert Peckham.
Andrew Irwin. More than a meal: Taste, texture and variety in an ancient culinary civilization. Review of: Invitation to a Banquet: The story of Chinese food / Fuchsia Dunlop.
Nigel Saul. Identity politics: The fall of the united kingdom of England and France. Review of: The Hundred Years War Vol 5: Triumph and Illusion / Jonathan Sumption.
Miranda France. Telling details: On attempts to capture people in words. Review of: Lifescapes: A biographer’s search for the soul / Ann Wroe -- The Book of Wonderful Characters / Henry Wilson and James Caulfield.
Lydia Wilson. While Syria burns: The political interests that have prevented western intervention. Review of: Syria Betrayed: Atrocities, war, and the failure of international diplomacy / Alex J. Bellamy.
Caroline Moorehead. A life complete: A grieving daughter looks back at her mother’s activism. Review of: Before the Light Fades: A memoir of grief and resistance / Natasha Walter (a life of Helen Bamber).
In Brief Review of: Places of Tenderness and Heat: The queer milieu of fin-de-siècle St Petersburg / Olga Petri.
In Brief Review of: Galen: Writings on Health: Thrasybulus and Health (De sanitate tuenda) / P.N. Singer.
In Brief Review of: Un Carmen en Granada: Memorias de un hispanista dublinés / Ian Gibson.
In Brief Review of: I Am Still With You: A reckoning with silence, inheritance and history / Emmanuel Iduma.
In Brief Review of: A Visible Man / Edward Enninful,
53featherbear
Recently from LARB:
Sasha Karshavina. 08/31/2023: Nature’s on Top This Time. Review of: The Lost World and The Poison Belt / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Ed Simon. 08/31/2023: Why the 17th Century (Still) Matters. Review of: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603–1689 / Jonathan Healey.
Judith Finell. 08/29/2023: Misunderstood Musical Genius. Review of: Schoenberg: Why He Matters / Harvey Sachs.
Sasha Karshavina. 08/31/2023: Nature’s on Top This Time. Review of: The Lost World and The Poison Belt / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Ed Simon. 08/31/2023: Why the 17th Century (Still) Matters. Review of: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603–1689 / Jonathan Healey.
Judith Finell. 08/29/2023: Misunderstood Musical Genius. Review of: Schoenberg: Why He Matters / Harvey Sachs.
54featherbear
Jimmy Buffett, 1946-2023
Bill Friskics-Warren. Jimmy Buffett, Roguish Bard of Island Escapism, Is Dead at 76.
"Mr. Buffett was also an accomplished author; he was one of only six writers, along with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and William Styron, to top both The Times’s fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists. By the time he wrote “Tales From Margaritaville” (1989), the first of his three No. 1 best sellers, he had abandoned the hedonistic lifestyle he once embraced."
Bill Friskics-Warren. Jimmy Buffett, Roguish Bard of Island Escapism, Is Dead at 76.
"Mr. Buffett was also an accomplished author; he was one of only six writers, along with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and William Styron, to top both The Times’s fiction and nonfiction best-seller lists. By the time he wrote “Tales From Margaritaville” (1989), the first of his three No. 1 best sellers, he had abandoned the hedonistic lifestyle he once embraced."
55featherbear
Kevin Mims. Quillette, 09/04/2023: Remembering ‘Exodus’: A perennially controversial bestseller turns 65. (On Exodus / Leon Uris)
56featherbear
Leo Robson. 09/01/2023: Under Western Eyes. On Milan Kundera.
57featherbear
Olivia Kan-Sperling. n+1 (online), 08/31/2023: Toward Pop Literature: a polemic.
58featherbear
Rebecca Chace. NYT, 09/04/2023, updated 09/05: Edith Grossman, Who Elevated the Art of Translation, Dies at 87. Translator of Don Quixote & Love in the Time of Cholera.
59featherbear
"The novel’s translator, Alison Watts, faithfully shepherds into English a cast of characters who are wonderfully wide open: smart and searching, but not trying to impress. The prose is diaristic and hyper-casual — the tone of much contemporary Japanese fiction."
Robin Sloan. NYT, 09/05/2023: Books Recommended With Uncommon Wisdom and Tender Care. Review of: What You Are Looking for Is in the Library / Michiko Aoyama. Translated by Alison Watts.
Robin Sloan. NYT, 09/05/2023: Books Recommended With Uncommon Wisdom and Tender Care. Review of: What You Are Looking for Is in the Library / Michiko Aoyama. Translated by Alison Watts.
60featherbear
Associated Press, via NBC news site. 09/05/2023: Conservative book ban push fuels exodus from American Library Association.
"CHEYENNE, Wyo. — After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters, the local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal — and keeping out of collections.
"But that’s not all the library board has done.
"Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what’s become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans."
"CHEYENNE, Wyo. — After parents in a rural and staunchly conservative Wyoming county joined nationwide pressure on librarians to pull books they considered harmful to youngsters, the local library board obliged with new policies making such books a higher priority for removal — and keeping out of collections.
"But that’s not all the library board has done.
"Campbell County also withdrew from the American Library Association, in what’s become a movement against the professional organization that has fought against book bans."
61featherbear
Recent book news from The Guardian:
Veronica Esposito. 09/05/2023: ‘A towering figure’: celebrating the impact of art critic Leo Steinberg. Review of: The Circulating Lifeblood of Ideas / Holly Borham: "how the art critic Leo Steinberg, who broke ground in the 1960s with his ideas about pop art and Renaissance masters, arrived at his discoveries through his giant collection of art prints."
Elif Batuman. 09/05/2023: Proust, ChatGPT and the case of the forgotten quote.
Veronica Esposito. 09/05/2023: ‘A towering figure’: celebrating the impact of art critic Leo Steinberg. Review of: The Circulating Lifeblood of Ideas / Holly Borham: "how the art critic Leo Steinberg, who broke ground in the 1960s with his ideas about pop art and Renaissance masters, arrived at his discoveries through his giant collection of art prints."
Elif Batuman. 09/05/2023: Proust, ChatGPT and the case of the forgotten quote.
62featherbear
TLS September 8, 2023|No. 6284
Featured:
Nat Segnit. Politics of paranoia: Why bizarre conspiracy theories are no longer a joke. Review of: Doppelganger: A trip into the mirror world / Naomi Klein -- Conspirituality: How New Age conspiracy theories became a health threat / Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker -- Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 years of conspiracy theories /Mike Rothschild.
Laura Kounine. Wicked witch hunts: The punishment of women who stood out from the crowd. Review of: Witchcraft: a history in 13 trials / Marion Gibson.
Nick Holdstock. Big Brother state: The persecution of the Uyghur as seen through a poet’s eyes. Review of: Waiting To Be Arrested At Night: A Uyghur poet’s memoir of China’s genocide / Tahir Hamut Izgil; translated by Joshua L. Freeman.
Katherine Craik. After a fashion: Dressing Shakespeare for the modern age. Review of: Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: “Period dress” in twenty-first-century performance / Ella Hawkins -- Performing Restoration Shakespeare / Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Claude Fretz and Richard Schoch, editors.
Literature
Oliver Herford. Jewel cutting: The Longman edition of The Ring and the Book. Review of: The Poems of Browning: Volume Five: Volume Five: The Ring and the Book, Books 1–6 / Robert Browning; Edited by John Woolford, Daniel Karlin and Joseph Phelan -- The Poems of Browning: Volume Six: The Ring and the Book, Books 7–12 / Robert Browning; edited by John Woolford, Daniel Karlin and Joseph Phelan.
Harold Schechter. The Texas Tolstoy: How Larry McMurtry found fame. Review of: Larry McMurtry: a life / Tracy Daugherty -- Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow writers on the life and legacy of Larry McMurtry / George Getschow, editor.
Erin E. Templeton. Greatness of Gatsby: The emotional underpinning of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. Review of: Taking Things Hard: The trials of F. Scott Fitzgerald / Robert R. Garnett.
Andrew Motion. Fallen angel: An unwitting surrogate is impregnated with Neanderthal DNA. Review of the novel The Seventh Son / Sebastian Faulks.
Philip Womack. Vampire squids: A mysterious substance manifests beloved objects from the past. Review of the novel: Prophet / Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché.
Lily Herd. Do androids dream at all?: Astronauts head off in search of Earth-saving bacteria. Review of the novel Chimera / Alice Thompson.
In Brief Review of: Crooked Plow: a novel / Itamar Vieira Junior; translated by Johnny Lorenz.
In Brief Review of: Speak to Me / Paula Cocozza.
Arts & Architecture
Lucy Dallas. All that Heaven allows: Angels, demons and humans meet again in a much-anticipated sequel. Review of the TV streaming series Good Omens 2 on Amazon Prime Video.
Jonathan Drummond. Misfiring Missile: A thrilling portrait of a world-class cyclist’s struggles. Review of the streaming documentary film Mark Cavendish: never enough on Netflix (not sure if this is also on US Netflix).
Colin Grant. A palpable sense of chemistry: Medicine and manipulation brought to dramatic life. Review of the play The Effect by Lucy Prebble, at National Theatre, until October 7.
Simon Jenkins. Serene and stately: How English was the English country house? Review of: How the Country House Became English / Stephanie Barczewski
In Brief Review of: Notes from the Rehearsal Room: a director's process / Nancy Meckler.
Philosophy
Richard Lea. No surfing without waves: Where there is perception there is bias. Review of: The Experience Machine: How our minds predict and shape reality / Andy Clark.
Mary Leng. Small worlds: Not even physics is just physics, says a philosopher. Review of: A Philosopher Looks at Science / Nancy Cartwright.
Kieran Setiya. Frivolous and profound: Philosophy, fiction and fun. (Essay)
Natural History
In Brief Review of: What An Owl Knows: The new science of the world's most enigmatic birds / Jennifer Ackerman.
History, Politics, & Society
T. M. Luhrmann. Unravelling a web: The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz, fifty years on. (Essay on The Interpretation of Cultures / C. Geertz)
Jerry Toner. Rome’s zenith: The final part of Tom Holland’s Roman trilogy. Review of: Pax: War and peace in Rome’s golden age / Tom Holland.
Rana Mitter. Old enemies of democracy: Chinese thinkers plunder the classical world. Review of: Plato Goes to China: The Greek classics and Chinese nationalism / Shad Bartsch.
Padraic X. Scanlan. Triangular trade: The part played by slavery in the growth of British prosperity. Review of: Slavery, Capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution / Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson.
Conrad Ladin. Divided they fell: An oral history of the miners’ strike. Review of: Backbone of the Nation: Mining communities and the Great Strike of 1984–85 / Robert Gildea.
Norma Clarke. A final reckoning: In his wheelchair-bound last years, Jonathan Raban looks back at his relationship with his father. Review of: Father and son: a memoir / Jonathan Raban.
In Brief Review of: A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women / Emma Southon.
In Brief Review of: Windward Family: An atlas of love, loss and belonging / Alexis Keir.
In Briefs Review of: Le rire ou la vie: Anthologie de l’humour résistant 1940-1945 / Alya Aglan.
Featured:
Nat Segnit. Politics of paranoia: Why bizarre conspiracy theories are no longer a joke. Review of: Doppelganger: A trip into the mirror world / Naomi Klein -- Conspirituality: How New Age conspiracy theories became a health threat / Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker -- Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 years of conspiracy theories /Mike Rothschild.
Laura Kounine. Wicked witch hunts: The punishment of women who stood out from the crowd. Review of: Witchcraft: a history in 13 trials / Marion Gibson.
Nick Holdstock. Big Brother state: The persecution of the Uyghur as seen through a poet’s eyes. Review of: Waiting To Be Arrested At Night: A Uyghur poet’s memoir of China’s genocide / Tahir Hamut Izgil; translated by Joshua L. Freeman.
Katherine Craik. After a fashion: Dressing Shakespeare for the modern age. Review of: Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: “Period dress” in twenty-first-century performance / Ella Hawkins -- Performing Restoration Shakespeare / Amanda Eubanks Winkler, Claude Fretz and Richard Schoch, editors.
Literature
Oliver Herford. Jewel cutting: The Longman edition of The Ring and the Book. Review of: The Poems of Browning: Volume Five: Volume Five: The Ring and the Book, Books 1–6 / Robert Browning; Edited by John Woolford, Daniel Karlin and Joseph Phelan -- The Poems of Browning: Volume Six: The Ring and the Book, Books 7–12 / Robert Browning; edited by John Woolford, Daniel Karlin and Joseph Phelan.
Harold Schechter. The Texas Tolstoy: How Larry McMurtry found fame. Review of: Larry McMurtry: a life / Tracy Daugherty -- Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow writers on the life and legacy of Larry McMurtry / George Getschow, editor.
Erin E. Templeton. Greatness of Gatsby: The emotional underpinning of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. Review of: Taking Things Hard: The trials of F. Scott Fitzgerald / Robert R. Garnett.
Andrew Motion. Fallen angel: An unwitting surrogate is impregnated with Neanderthal DNA. Review of the novel The Seventh Son / Sebastian Faulks.
Philip Womack. Vampire squids: A mysterious substance manifests beloved objects from the past. Review of the novel: Prophet / Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché.
Lily Herd. Do androids dream at all?: Astronauts head off in search of Earth-saving bacteria. Review of the novel Chimera / Alice Thompson.
In Brief Review of: Crooked Plow: a novel / Itamar Vieira Junior; translated by Johnny Lorenz.
In Brief Review of: Speak to Me / Paula Cocozza.
Arts & Architecture
Lucy Dallas. All that Heaven allows: Angels, demons and humans meet again in a much-anticipated sequel. Review of the TV streaming series Good Omens 2 on Amazon Prime Video.
Jonathan Drummond. Misfiring Missile: A thrilling portrait of a world-class cyclist’s struggles. Review of the streaming documentary film Mark Cavendish: never enough on Netflix (not sure if this is also on US Netflix).
Colin Grant. A palpable sense of chemistry: Medicine and manipulation brought to dramatic life. Review of the play The Effect by Lucy Prebble, at National Theatre, until October 7.
Simon Jenkins. Serene and stately: How English was the English country house? Review of: How the Country House Became English / Stephanie Barczewski
In Brief Review of: Notes from the Rehearsal Room: a director's process / Nancy Meckler.
Philosophy
Richard Lea. No surfing without waves: Where there is perception there is bias. Review of: The Experience Machine: How our minds predict and shape reality / Andy Clark.
Mary Leng. Small worlds: Not even physics is just physics, says a philosopher. Review of: A Philosopher Looks at Science / Nancy Cartwright.
Kieran Setiya. Frivolous and profound: Philosophy, fiction and fun. (Essay)
Natural History
In Brief Review of: What An Owl Knows: The new science of the world's most enigmatic birds / Jennifer Ackerman.
History, Politics, & Society
T. M. Luhrmann. Unravelling a web: The Interpretation of Cultures by Clifford Geertz, fifty years on. (Essay on The Interpretation of Cultures / C. Geertz)
Jerry Toner. Rome’s zenith: The final part of Tom Holland’s Roman trilogy. Review of: Pax: War and peace in Rome’s golden age / Tom Holland.
Rana Mitter. Old enemies of democracy: Chinese thinkers plunder the classical world. Review of: Plato Goes to China: The Greek classics and Chinese nationalism / Shad Bartsch.
Padraic X. Scanlan. Triangular trade: The part played by slavery in the growth of British prosperity. Review of: Slavery, Capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution / Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson.
Conrad Ladin. Divided they fell: An oral history of the miners’ strike. Review of: Backbone of the Nation: Mining communities and the Great Strike of 1984–85 / Robert Gildea.
Norma Clarke. A final reckoning: In his wheelchair-bound last years, Jonathan Raban looks back at his relationship with his father. Review of: Father and son: a memoir / Jonathan Raban.
In Brief Review of: A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women / Emma Southon.
In Brief Review of: Windward Family: An atlas of love, loss and belonging / Alexis Keir.
In Briefs Review of: Le rire ou la vie: Anthologie de l’humour résistant 1940-1945 / Alya Aglan.
63featherbear
Recent LitHub roundup. "Binary" not in good odor these days.
Hugh Ryan. 09/06/2023: Beyond the True-False Binary: How the Internet Helped Transform the Lyric Essay: Hugh Ryan on Truth and Post-Truth in Creative Nonfiction
Josh Cook. 08/23/2023: On the Bad Binary of “Good” and “Bad” Literature: Josh Cook on Taking Back the Idea of "Good Taste" from Cultural Authoritarians. Excerpt from Cook's The Art of Libromancy.
Yiyun Li. 09/06/2023: “Tolstoy did not neglect to describe the outhouses”: Yiyun Li on the Material Concerns of Characters and Writers.
Nick Groom. 09/05/2023: Is The Lord of the Rings a Work of Modernism?: Nick Groom Considers Tolkien as Metafiction. Excerpt from Tolkien in the Twenty-first Century / Nick Groom.
Kathleen B. Jones. 09/05/2023: The Beauty of Physical Encounters with Rare Books.
Hugh Ryan. 09/06/2023: Beyond the True-False Binary: How the Internet Helped Transform the Lyric Essay: Hugh Ryan on Truth and Post-Truth in Creative Nonfiction
Josh Cook. 08/23/2023: On the Bad Binary of “Good” and “Bad” Literature: Josh Cook on Taking Back the Idea of "Good Taste" from Cultural Authoritarians. Excerpt from Cook's The Art of Libromancy.
Yiyun Li. 09/06/2023: “Tolstoy did not neglect to describe the outhouses”: Yiyun Li on the Material Concerns of Characters and Writers.
Nick Groom. 09/05/2023: Is The Lord of the Rings a Work of Modernism?: Nick Groom Considers Tolkien as Metafiction. Excerpt from Tolkien in the Twenty-first Century / Nick Groom.
Kathleen B. Jones. 09/05/2023: The Beauty of Physical Encounters with Rare Books.
64featherbear
NYRB Online 09/21/2023
Literature
Michael Gorra. Playing with the Past. Review of the novel The Fraud / Zadie Smith.
Anahid Nersessian. Poems to Wake the Corpses: Joyce Mansour, the Syrian-Jewish writer whom André Breton called “the greatest poet of our time,” is the latest female member of the Surrealist circle to be reintroduced to the public. Review of: Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems of Joyce Mansour / translated from the French by Emilie Moorhouse and edited by Emilie Moorhouse and Garrett Caples.
Regina Marler. Unfrozen. Review of: The Last Animal / Ramona Ausubel.
Justin Davidson. Growing Up on Moan Street. Review of: The House on Via Gemito / Domenico Starnone, translated from the Italian by Oonagh Stransky.
Lily Meyer. A Cockeyed Faith in Better Men. Review of fiction by Rachel Ingalls: In the Act -- Mrs. Caliban / with an introduction by Riva Galchin -- Binstead's Safari -- No Love Lost: Selected Novellas / with a foreword by Patricia Lockwood.
Arts
William Dalrymple. Vibrant, Cacophonous Buddhism: A groundbreaking show at the Metropolitan Museum displays, among other treasures from India, works of Buddhist art that bear the mark of ancient animist cults that long preceded the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Review of: Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE catalog by John Guy of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, July 21–November 13, 2023; and the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, December 22, 2023–April 14, 2024.
Jed Perl. The Modern Hephaestus. Review of: David Smith: The Art and Life of a Transformational Sculptor / Michael Brenson -- David Smith Sculpture: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1932–1965 / edited by Christopher Lyon.
James Quandt. Jean Eustache’s Vehement Realism. Review of The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache, a retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center, New York City, June 23–July 13, 2023; the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, July 7–July 13, 2023; the Aero Theatre, Santa Monica, and the Los Feliz Theatre, Los Angeles, June 30–July 29, 2023; TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto, July 7–July 23, 2023; the Cinematheque, Vancouver, July 13–July 31, 2023; and SIFF Cinema Uptown, Seattle, July 14–July 23, 2023 -- Au travail avec Eustache (making of) / Luc Béraud -- Jean Eustache: Un amour si grand... / Philippe Azoury.
Karan Mahajan. A Brief Efflorescence: The early Aughts were a period when New York became the center of the world both politically and musically, the city itself the subject of songs and romance. Review of: Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City, 2001–2011 / Lizzy Goodman -- Meet Me in the Bathroom a documentary film directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace.
Natural History
Elizabeth Kolbert. Spored to Death: Fungi have caused some of the worst wildlife disease outbreaks ever documented. Will they come for us?. Review of: Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic / Emily Monosson -- Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms: Forays with Fungi Across Hemispheres / Alison Pouliot.
History, Politics, & Society
Osita Nwanevu. The Life of the Party. Review of: What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party / Michael Kazin -- Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality / Lily Geismer.
Colin Grant. A Reconfigured Self. Review of: Constructing a Nervous System / Margo Jefferson.
Fintan O'Toole. The Trouble with Ancestry. Review of: Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets / Burkhard Bilger -- Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends / Linda Kinstler.
Ben Tarnoff. . Better, Faster, Stronger. Review of: The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things / John Tinnell -- Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World / Malcolm Harris.
Eric Foner. Seeing Was Not Believing: A new book identifies the 1968 Democratic convention as the moment when broad public regard for the news media gave way to widespread distrust, and American divisiveness took off. Review of: When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America / Heather Hendershot.
Jacqueline Rose. The Analyst: Stuart Hall was passionately committed to understanding how social formations affected the deepest parts of the mind. (Essay)
Erin Maglaque. An Overabundance of Virtue: The scholar James Hankins has argued that the revival of ancient virtues was a central concern of Renaissance humanists. But can those virtues also be revived in modern America? Review of: Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy: The Virtuous Republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena / James Hankins.
James Oakes. Ships Going Out. Review of: American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644–1865 / Sean M. Kelley.
Linda Greenhouse. Why Aren’t Cops Held to Account? Review of: The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts / Stephen B. Bright and James Kwak, with a foreword by Bryan Stevenson -- Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable / Joanna Schwartz.
Ariel Dorfman. Defending Allende: The question of where Chile’s true identity lies becomes ever more pressing as the fiftieth anniversary of Pinochet’s coup approaches. (Essay)
Literature
Michael Gorra. Playing with the Past. Review of the novel The Fraud / Zadie Smith.
Anahid Nersessian. Poems to Wake the Corpses: Joyce Mansour, the Syrian-Jewish writer whom André Breton called “the greatest poet of our time,” is the latest female member of the Surrealist circle to be reintroduced to the public. Review of: Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems of Joyce Mansour / translated from the French by Emilie Moorhouse and edited by Emilie Moorhouse and Garrett Caples.
Regina Marler. Unfrozen. Review of: The Last Animal / Ramona Ausubel.
Justin Davidson. Growing Up on Moan Street. Review of: The House on Via Gemito / Domenico Starnone, translated from the Italian by Oonagh Stransky.
Lily Meyer. A Cockeyed Faith in Better Men. Review of fiction by Rachel Ingalls: In the Act -- Mrs. Caliban / with an introduction by Riva Galchin -- Binstead's Safari -- No Love Lost: Selected Novellas / with a foreword by Patricia Lockwood.
Arts
William Dalrymple. Vibrant, Cacophonous Buddhism: A groundbreaking show at the Metropolitan Museum displays, among other treasures from India, works of Buddhist art that bear the mark of ancient animist cults that long preceded the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Review of: Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE catalog by John Guy of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, July 21–November 13, 2023; and the National Museum of Korea, Seoul, December 22, 2023–April 14, 2024.
Jed Perl. The Modern Hephaestus. Review of: David Smith: The Art and Life of a Transformational Sculptor / Michael Brenson -- David Smith Sculpture: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1932–1965 / edited by Christopher Lyon.
James Quandt. Jean Eustache’s Vehement Realism. Review of The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache, a retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center, New York City, June 23–July 13, 2023; the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, July 7–July 13, 2023; the Aero Theatre, Santa Monica, and the Los Feliz Theatre, Los Angeles, June 30–July 29, 2023; TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto, July 7–July 23, 2023; the Cinematheque, Vancouver, July 13–July 31, 2023; and SIFF Cinema Uptown, Seattle, July 14–July 23, 2023 -- Au travail avec Eustache (making of) / Luc Béraud -- Jean Eustache: Un amour si grand... / Philippe Azoury.
Karan Mahajan. A Brief Efflorescence: The early Aughts were a period when New York became the center of the world both politically and musically, the city itself the subject of songs and romance. Review of: Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City, 2001–2011 / Lizzy Goodman -- Meet Me in the Bathroom a documentary film directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace.
Natural History
Elizabeth Kolbert. Spored to Death: Fungi have caused some of the worst wildlife disease outbreaks ever documented. Will they come for us?. Review of: Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic / Emily Monosson -- Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms: Forays with Fungi Across Hemispheres / Alison Pouliot.
History, Politics, & Society
Osita Nwanevu. The Life of the Party. Review of: What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party / Michael Kazin -- Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality / Lily Geismer.
Colin Grant. A Reconfigured Self. Review of: Constructing a Nervous System / Margo Jefferson.
Fintan O'Toole. The Trouble with Ancestry. Review of: Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets / Burkhard Bilger -- Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends / Linda Kinstler.
Ben Tarnoff. . Better, Faster, Stronger. Review of: The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things / John Tinnell -- Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World / Malcolm Harris.
Eric Foner. Seeing Was Not Believing: A new book identifies the 1968 Democratic convention as the moment when broad public regard for the news media gave way to widespread distrust, and American divisiveness took off. Review of: When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America / Heather Hendershot.
Jacqueline Rose. The Analyst: Stuart Hall was passionately committed to understanding how social formations affected the deepest parts of the mind. (Essay)
Erin Maglaque. An Overabundance of Virtue: The scholar James Hankins has argued that the revival of ancient virtues was a central concern of Renaissance humanists. But can those virtues also be revived in modern America? Review of: Political Meritocracy in Renaissance Italy: The Virtuous Republic of Francesco Patrizi of Siena / James Hankins.
James Oakes. Ships Going Out. Review of: American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644–1865 / Sean M. Kelley.
Linda Greenhouse. Why Aren’t Cops Held to Account? Review of: The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts / Stephen B. Bright and James Kwak, with a foreword by Bryan Stevenson -- Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable / Joanna Schwartz.
Ariel Dorfman. Defending Allende: The question of where Chile’s true identity lies becomes ever more pressing as the fiftieth anniversary of Pinochet’s coup approaches. (Essay)
65featherbear
"On January 30, 1933, German conservatives—fearing socialism more than Nazism—appointed Adolf Hitler Reich chancellor. For conservative politicians, Hitler’s declining poll numbers hardly mattered. ... Germany’s old guard believed that Hitler could be put in charge to win over the masses he had mobilized—contained, they thought, and then jettisoned once stability was restored."
Daniela Blei. LARB, 09/06/2023: Thin Ice. Review of: February 1933: The Winter of Literature / Uwe Wittstock.
Daniela Blei. LARB, 09/06/2023: Thin Ice. Review of: February 1933: The Winter of Literature / Uwe Wittstock.
66featherbear
Ann Hulbert. Atlantic, 09/07/2023: George Eliot’s Subversive Vision of Marriage. A number of books discussing Marian Evans's relationships are discussed, including the recent The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life / Clare Carlisle.
James Wood. New Yorker, 09/04/2023: The Holy Heresies of George Eliot. (Who also reviews the new book by Clare Carlisle)
James Wood. New Yorker, 09/04/2023: The Holy Heresies of George Eliot. (Who also reviews the new book by Clare Carlisle)
67featherbear
"Merve Emre’s Vinduet Lecture, held in the Hamsun Hall at Gyldendal Norsk Forlag in Oslo, September 4th 2023."
Merve Emre. Vinduet, 09/06/2023: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time.
Merve Emre. Vinduet, 09/06/2023: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time.
68featherbear
New Elon Musk bio. Reviews of Elon Musk / Walter Isaacson:
Damon Beres. Atlantic, 09/11/2023: Demon Mode Activated: A conversation with Walter Isaacson about his new biography of Elon Musk, world builder and world destroyer.
Will Oremus. WaPo, 09/10/2023: Elon Musk has his demons. Walter Isaacson does his best to dissect them.
Jill Lepore. New Yorker, 09/11/2023: How Elon Musk Went from Superhero to Supervillain.
Jennifer Szalai. NYT, 09/09/2023: Elon Musk Wants to Save Humanity. The Only Problem: People.
Damon Beres. Atlantic, 09/11/2023: Demon Mode Activated: A conversation with Walter Isaacson about his new biography of Elon Musk, world builder and world destroyer.
Will Oremus. WaPo, 09/10/2023: Elon Musk has his demons. Walter Isaacson does his best to dissect them.
Jill Lepore. New Yorker, 09/11/2023: How Elon Musk Went from Superhero to Supervillain.
Jennifer Szalai. NYT, 09/09/2023: Elon Musk Wants to Save Humanity. The Only Problem: People.
69featherbear
Carter Dougherty & Andrew Park. The Atlantic, 09/09/2023: Book Publishing has a Toys 'R Us Problem: A private-equity acquisition will saddle Simon & Schuster with $1 billion in debt. What could go wrong?.
70featherbear
TLS September 15, 2023|No. 6285
Featured
Claire Lowden. Costume drama: Zadie Smith’s Victorian tale of posture and impostors. Review of: The Fraud / Zadie Smith.
David Gallagher. Democrat or revolutionary?: Salvador Allende reconsidered, fifty years after the military coup. Review of: LA EXPERIENCIA POLíTICA DE LA UNIDAD POPULAR 1970-1973 / Patricio Aylwin Azócar -- Salvador Allended: La izquierda chilena y la Unidad Popular / Daniel Mansuy -- LA BÚSQUEDA / Cristóbal Jimeno Chadwick and Daniela Mohor Wöhlke -- THE CHILE PROJECT: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the downfall of neoliberalism / Sebastian Edwards -- THE CIRCUIT OF DETACHMENT IN CHILE: Understanding the fate of a neoliberal laboratory / Kathya Araujo -- LA NUEVA IZQUIERDA CHILENA: De las marchas estudiantiles a La Moneda / Noam Titelman.
Matthew Parris. The rest is ego: A lifeless manifesto and ‘one of the best books on politics our era will see.’ Review of: BUT WHAT CAN I DO?: Why politics has gone so wrong, and how you can help fix it / Alastair Campbell -- POLITICS ON THE EDGE: A memoir from within / Rory Stewart.
Selina Todd. The age of telly: David Kynaston takes his social history of Britain into the 1960s. Review of: A NORTHERN WIND: Britain 1962–65 / David Kynaston.
Literature
Ana Alicia Garza. Imaginary London: A ‘sanitised heritage vision’ of the city inspired by Dickens. Review of: DICKENSLAND: The curious history of Dickens’s London / Lee Jackson.
Annette Federico. His little pet: Dickens’s intriguing relationship with his wife’s younger sister. Review of: CHARLES DICKENS AND GEORGINA HOGARTH: A curious and enduring relationship / Christine Skelton.
Ben Hutchinson. Grandmasters: Chess as a defining activity of life for two novelists. Review of: L’ÉCHIQUIER / Jean-Philippe Toussaint -- ÉCHECS / Stefan Zweig; translated by Jean-Philippe Toussaint.
Sheena Joughin. Some children do ’ave ’em: Fragments on ‘the shattering experience of motherhood.’ Review of: MY WORK / Olga Ravn; translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Edmund Gordon. Dear Old Mum: A complex and stylish novel of traits inherited and spurned. Review of: THE WREN, THE WREN / Anne Enright.
Paul Quinn. For whom the bells toll: A family with a special gift for communing with the past. Review of: THE VARIATIONS / Patrick Langley.
Rohan Maitzen. The world came first: Three centuries of entwined human and natural history. Review of: NORTH WOODS: a novel / Daniel Mason.
Andrea Brady. Imitation game: A modern poet’s playful response to W. H. Auden’s pedagogy for poets. Review of: DAYDREAM COLLEGE FOR BARDS / Camille Ralphs.
William Wooten. Losers will be winners: Heroic verse that celebrates the defeated. Review of: CRISIS ACTOR / Declan Ryan.
Evan Jones. Avoiding epiphany: ‘Moments laid bare’ in Yannis Ritsos’s poems. Review of: A BROKEN MAN IN FLOWER: Versions of Yannis Ritsos / David Harsent -- MONOCHORDS / Yannis Ritsos with Chiara Ambrosia; translated by Paul Merchant.
Mark Glanville. Songs of the underworld: The ‘bawdy directness’ of Elias Petropoulos. Review of: MIRROR FOR YOU: Collected poems 1967–1999 / Elias Petropoulos; translated by John Taylor.
In Brief Review of: THE APHRODYSIAL OR SEA-FEAST / William Percy; edited by Maria Shmygol.
In Brief Review of: BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER / Tristram Fane Saunders.
In Brief Review of: ULTRAMARINE / Mariette Navarro; translated by Cory Stockwell.
Arts
Lillian Crawford. A worldlier class of flapper: Ursula Parrott scandalized and titillated Hollywood in the 1930s. Review of: EX-WIFE / Ursula Parrott -- BECOMING THE EX-WIFE: The unconventional life and forgotten writings of Ursula Parrott / Marsha Gordon.
Adam Mars-Jones. Sharks and salamanders: A film in which the characters tell the truth and play a part. Review of Louis Garrel's film The Innocent.
Religion
Natasha Heller. Tyger Tyger: Animals in the Chinese imagination. Review of: IN THE LAND OF TIGERS AND SNAKES: Living with animals in medieval Chinese religions / Huaiyu Chen -- ANIMALS AND PLANTS IN CHINESE RELIGIONS AND SCIENCE / Huaiyu Chen.
Alastair Hamilton. The Pope’s loyal legions: The Eastern Churches in communion with Rome. Review of: MIDDLE EASTERN AND EUROPEAN CHRISTIANITY, 16TH–20TH CENTURY: Connected histories / Bernard Heyberger; translated by M. Robitaille-Ibbett; edited by Aurélien Girard, Cesare Santus, Vassa Kontouma and Karène Sanchez Summerer.
Madoc Cairns. Keeping the faith: How evangelicals have engaged the ordinary American. Review of: CHRISTIANITY’S AMERICAN FATE: How religion became more conservative and society more secular / David A. Hollinger.
Medical
Ryan Ruby. Sleeping drafts: An anatomy of insomnia. Review of: SLEEPLESS / Marie Darrieussecq; translated by Penny Hueston.
In Brief Review of: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF LOSS: Life, love and the art of dying / Sarah Tarlow.
History, Politics, Culture, & Society
Irina Dumitrescu. Fame is the spur: When stars lose their reputations. (Essay on Abelard's notoriety)
In Brief Review of: BAD HUMOR: Race and religious essentialism in early modern England / Kimberly Anne Coles.
In Brief Review of: An Unlasting Home / Mai Al-Nakib.
In Brief Review of: UNFAIR PLAY: The battle for women’s sport / Sharron Davies with Craig Lord.
Featured
Claire Lowden. Costume drama: Zadie Smith’s Victorian tale of posture and impostors. Review of: The Fraud / Zadie Smith.
David Gallagher. Democrat or revolutionary?: Salvador Allende reconsidered, fifty years after the military coup. Review of: LA EXPERIENCIA POLíTICA DE LA UNIDAD POPULAR 1970-1973 / Patricio Aylwin Azócar -- Salvador Allended: La izquierda chilena y la Unidad Popular / Daniel Mansuy -- LA BÚSQUEDA / Cristóbal Jimeno Chadwick and Daniela Mohor Wöhlke -- THE CHILE PROJECT: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the downfall of neoliberalism / Sebastian Edwards -- THE CIRCUIT OF DETACHMENT IN CHILE: Understanding the fate of a neoliberal laboratory / Kathya Araujo -- LA NUEVA IZQUIERDA CHILENA: De las marchas estudiantiles a La Moneda / Noam Titelman.
Matthew Parris. The rest is ego: A lifeless manifesto and ‘one of the best books on politics our era will see.’ Review of: BUT WHAT CAN I DO?: Why politics has gone so wrong, and how you can help fix it / Alastair Campbell -- POLITICS ON THE EDGE: A memoir from within / Rory Stewart.
Selina Todd. The age of telly: David Kynaston takes his social history of Britain into the 1960s. Review of: A NORTHERN WIND: Britain 1962–65 / David Kynaston.
Literature
Ana Alicia Garza. Imaginary London: A ‘sanitised heritage vision’ of the city inspired by Dickens. Review of: DICKENSLAND: The curious history of Dickens’s London / Lee Jackson.
Annette Federico. His little pet: Dickens’s intriguing relationship with his wife’s younger sister. Review of: CHARLES DICKENS AND GEORGINA HOGARTH: A curious and enduring relationship / Christine Skelton.
Ben Hutchinson. Grandmasters: Chess as a defining activity of life for two novelists. Review of: L’ÉCHIQUIER / Jean-Philippe Toussaint -- ÉCHECS / Stefan Zweig; translated by Jean-Philippe Toussaint.
Sheena Joughin. Some children do ’ave ’em: Fragments on ‘the shattering experience of motherhood.’ Review of: MY WORK / Olga Ravn; translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Edmund Gordon. Dear Old Mum: A complex and stylish novel of traits inherited and spurned. Review of: THE WREN, THE WREN / Anne Enright.
Paul Quinn. For whom the bells toll: A family with a special gift for communing with the past. Review of: THE VARIATIONS / Patrick Langley.
Rohan Maitzen. The world came first: Three centuries of entwined human and natural history. Review of: NORTH WOODS: a novel / Daniel Mason.
Andrea Brady. Imitation game: A modern poet’s playful response to W. H. Auden’s pedagogy for poets. Review of: DAYDREAM COLLEGE FOR BARDS / Camille Ralphs.
William Wooten. Losers will be winners: Heroic verse that celebrates the defeated. Review of: CRISIS ACTOR / Declan Ryan.
Evan Jones. Avoiding epiphany: ‘Moments laid bare’ in Yannis Ritsos’s poems. Review of: A BROKEN MAN IN FLOWER: Versions of Yannis Ritsos / David Harsent -- MONOCHORDS / Yannis Ritsos with Chiara Ambrosia; translated by Paul Merchant.
Mark Glanville. Songs of the underworld: The ‘bawdy directness’ of Elias Petropoulos. Review of: MIRROR FOR YOU: Collected poems 1967–1999 / Elias Petropoulos; translated by John Taylor.
In Brief Review of: THE APHRODYSIAL OR SEA-FEAST / William Percy; edited by Maria Shmygol.
In Brief Review of: BEFORE WE GO ANY FURTHER / Tristram Fane Saunders.
In Brief Review of: ULTRAMARINE / Mariette Navarro; translated by Cory Stockwell.
Arts
Lillian Crawford. A worldlier class of flapper: Ursula Parrott scandalized and titillated Hollywood in the 1930s. Review of: EX-WIFE / Ursula Parrott -- BECOMING THE EX-WIFE: The unconventional life and forgotten writings of Ursula Parrott / Marsha Gordon.
Adam Mars-Jones. Sharks and salamanders: A film in which the characters tell the truth and play a part. Review of Louis Garrel's film The Innocent.
Religion
Natasha Heller. Tyger Tyger: Animals in the Chinese imagination. Review of: IN THE LAND OF TIGERS AND SNAKES: Living with animals in medieval Chinese religions / Huaiyu Chen -- ANIMALS AND PLANTS IN CHINESE RELIGIONS AND SCIENCE / Huaiyu Chen.
Alastair Hamilton. The Pope’s loyal legions: The Eastern Churches in communion with Rome. Review of: MIDDLE EASTERN AND EUROPEAN CHRISTIANITY, 16TH–20TH CENTURY: Connected histories / Bernard Heyberger; translated by M. Robitaille-Ibbett; edited by Aurélien Girard, Cesare Santus, Vassa Kontouma and Karène Sanchez Summerer.
Madoc Cairns. Keeping the faith: How evangelicals have engaged the ordinary American. Review of: CHRISTIANITY’S AMERICAN FATE: How religion became more conservative and society more secular / David A. Hollinger.
Medical
Ryan Ruby. Sleeping drafts: An anatomy of insomnia. Review of: SLEEPLESS / Marie Darrieussecq; translated by Penny Hueston.
In Brief Review of: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF LOSS: Life, love and the art of dying / Sarah Tarlow.
History, Politics, Culture, & Society
Irina Dumitrescu. Fame is the spur: When stars lose their reputations. (Essay on Abelard's notoriety)
In Brief Review of: BAD HUMOR: Race and religious essentialism in early modern England / Kimberly Anne Coles.
In Brief Review of: An Unlasting Home / Mai Al-Nakib.
In Brief Review of: UNFAIR PLAY: The battle for women’s sport / Sharron Davies with Craig Lord.
71featherbear
Geoff Dyer. Paris Review, 09/12/2023: Looking for Virginia Woolf’s Diaries.
72featherbear
From The New Yorker: National Book Awards longlists
09/15/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Chain-Gang All-Stars
Aaliyah Bilal. Temple Folk
Eliot Duncan. Ponyboy
Paul Harding. This Other Eden
Tania James. Loot
Jayne Anne Phillips. Night Watch
Mona Susan Power. A Council of Dolls
Hanna Pylväinen. The End of Drum-Time
Justin Torres. Blackouts
LaToya Watkins. Holler, Child
09/15/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Fiction.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Chain-Gang All-Stars
Aaliyah Bilal. Temple Folk
Eliot Duncan. Ponyboy
Paul Harding. This Other Eden
Tania James. Loot
Jayne Anne Phillips. Night Watch
Mona Susan Power. A Council of Dolls
Hanna Pylväinen. The End of Drum-Time
Justin Torres. Blackouts
LaToya Watkins. Holler, Child
73featherbear
Recently from Aeon:
Brett Gary. 09/12/2023: Beyond obscenity: A century after the trial against ‘Ulysses’, we must revisit the civil liberties arguments of its defender, Morris Ernst.
William Egginton. 09/14/2023: Quantum poetics: How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality.
Brett Gary. 09/12/2023: Beyond obscenity: A century after the trial against ‘Ulysses’, we must revisit the civil liberties arguments of its defender, Morris Ernst.
William Egginton. 09/14/2023: Quantum poetics: How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality.
74featherbear
From The New Yorker: National Book Awards longlists
09/13/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Translated Literature.
Juan Cárdenas, translated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis. The Devil of the Provinces
Bora Chung, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur. Cursed Bunny
David Diop, translated from the French by Sam Taylor. Beyond the Door of No Return
Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann. Kairos
Stênio Gardel, translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato . The Words That Remain
Khaled Khalifa, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price. No One Prayed Over Their Graves
Fernanda Melchor, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes. This Is Not Miami
Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. Abyss
Astrid Roemer, translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott. On a Woman’s Madness
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud. The Most Secret Memory of Men
09/13/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Translated Literature.
Juan Cárdenas, translated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis. The Devil of the Provinces
Bora Chung, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur. Cursed Bunny
David Diop, translated from the French by Sam Taylor. Beyond the Door of No Return
Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann. Kairos
Stênio Gardel, translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato . The Words That Remain
Khaled Khalifa, translated from the Arabic by Leri Price. No One Prayed Over Their Graves
Fernanda Melchor, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes. This Is Not Miami
Pilar Quintana, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman. Abyss
Astrid Roemer, translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott. On a Woman’s Madness
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud. The Most Secret Memory of Men
75featherbear
Maybe Emily Wilson will be on next year's Nat Book Awards longlist?:
Judith Thurman. New Yorker, 09/11/2023: How Emily Wilson Made Homer Modern.
Judith Thurman. New Yorker, 09/11/2023: How Emily Wilson Made Homer Modern.
76featherbear
Jonathan Edwards. WaPo, 09/13/2023: Librarians say they were fired for rainbow autism symbols, accused of ‘LGBTQ agenda.’ Really bizarre story; article may be shared.
Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 09/15/2023: Red states quit nation’s oldest library group amid culture war over books. "The American Library Association is facing a partisan firefight unlike anything in its almost 150-year history. The once-uncontroversial organization, which says it is the world’s largest and oldest library association and which provides funding, training and tools to most of the country’s 123,000 libraries, has become entangled in the education culture wars — the raging debates over what and how to teach about race, sex and gender ..."
Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 09/15/2023: Red states quit nation’s oldest library group amid culture war over books. "The American Library Association is facing a partisan firefight unlike anything in its almost 150-year history. The once-uncontroversial organization, which says it is the world’s largest and oldest library association and which provides funding, training and tools to most of the country’s 123,000 libraries, has become entangled in the education culture wars — the raging debates over what and how to teach about race, sex and gender ..."
77featherbear
From The New Yorker: National Book Awards longlists
09/14/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Poetry.
John Lee Clark, How to Communicate
Oliver de la Paz, The Diaspora Sonnets
Annelyse Gelman, Vexations
José Olivarez, Promises of Gold
Craig Santos Perez, from unincorporated territory åmot
Paisley Rekdal, West: A Translation
Brandon Som, Tripas
Charif Shanahan, Trace Evidence
Evie Shockley, suddenly we
Monica Youn, From From: poems
09/14/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Poetry.
John Lee Clark, How to Communicate
Oliver de la Paz, The Diaspora Sonnets
Annelyse Gelman, Vexations
José Olivarez, Promises of Gold
Craig Santos Perez, from unincorporated territory åmot
Paisley Rekdal, West: A Translation
Brandon Som, Tripas
Charif Shanahan, Trace Evidence
Evie Shockley, suddenly we
Monica Youn, From From: poems
78featherbear
From The New Yorker: National Book Awards longlists
09/14/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Nonfiction.
Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
Jonathan Eig, King: A Life
Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial
Donovan X. Ramsey, When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era
Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice
Prudence Peiffer, The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever
Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes
Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir
John Vaillant, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
Kidada E. Williams, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction
09/14/2023: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Nonfiction.
Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History
Jonathan Eig, King: A Life
Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial
Donovan X. Ramsey, When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era
Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice
Prudence Peiffer, The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever
Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes
Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir
John Vaillant, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
Kidada E. Williams, I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction
79featherbear
New books in The Atlantic:
Tyler Austin Harper. 09/18/2023: An Intellectual and a Moral Failure: Richard Hanania’s new book is a Trojan horse for white supremacy. Review of: The Origins of Woke / Richard Hanania.
Jonathan C. Slaght. 09/18/2023: The Overlooked Danger That’s Massacring Wildlife: A new book argues that there’s nothing worse for wild animals than cars. Review of: Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet / Ben Goldfarb.
Xochitl Gonzalez. 09/18/2023: The 'Whiteboy Brooklyn Novelist' Grows Up. Review of: Brooklyn Crime Novel / Jonathan Lethem.
Melissa Kearney. 09/18/2023: A Driver of Inequality That Not Enough People Are Talking About. Excerpt from: The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind / Melissa S. Kearney.
McKay Coppins. 09/13/2023: What Mitt Romney Saw in the Senate. Excerpt from: Romney: a reckoning / McKay Coppins.
Tyler Austin Harper. 09/18/2023: An Intellectual and a Moral Failure: Richard Hanania’s new book is a Trojan horse for white supremacy. Review of: The Origins of Woke / Richard Hanania.
Jonathan C. Slaght. 09/18/2023: The Overlooked Danger That’s Massacring Wildlife: A new book argues that there’s nothing worse for wild animals than cars. Review of: Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet / Ben Goldfarb.
Xochitl Gonzalez. 09/18/2023: The 'Whiteboy Brooklyn Novelist' Grows Up. Review of: Brooklyn Crime Novel / Jonathan Lethem.
Melissa Kearney. 09/18/2023: A Driver of Inequality That Not Enough People Are Talking About. Excerpt from: The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind / Melissa S. Kearney.
McKay Coppins. 09/13/2023: What Mitt Romney Saw in the Senate. Excerpt from: Romney: a reckoning / McKay Coppins.
80featherbear
Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh. LARB, 09/17/2023: Globalizing China or Sinicizing the Global? Review of: A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science / Alexander Statman -- 1368: China and the Making of the Modern World / Ali Humayun Akhtar.
81featherbear
New books in The New Yorker:
Merve Emre. 09/18/2023: What Is Mom Rage, Actually? Review of: Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood / Minna Dubin.
Rachel Monroe. 09/18/2023: How Larry McMurtry Defined and Undermined the Idea of Texas. Review of: Larry McMurtry: a life / Tracy Daughtery.
Hannah Zeavin. 09/13/2023: A Memoir of Contested Illness That Takes On the Legacy of Hysteria. Review of: A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir / Emily Wells.
09/13/2023. The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Young People’s Literature.
Merve Emre. 09/18/2023: What Is Mom Rage, Actually? Review of: Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood / Minna Dubin.
Rachel Monroe. 09/18/2023: How Larry McMurtry Defined and Undermined the Idea of Texas. Review of: Larry McMurtry: a life / Tracy Daughtery.
Hannah Zeavin. 09/13/2023: A Memoir of Contested Illness That Takes On the Legacy of Hysteria. Review of: A Matter of Appearance: A Memoir / Emily Wells.
09/13/2023. The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist: Young People’s Literature.
82featherbear
Lawrence M. Kraus. Quillette, 09/18/2023: Charles Darwin: The Best Scientist-Writer of All Time. On The Voyage of the Beagle / Charles Darwin.
84featherbear
Book reviews from The Critic:
M.W. Pedersen. 08/27/2023: Effective affinities: Moral philosophy, the individual and the future. Review of: What We Owe the Future / William MacAskill.
James Stevens Curl. 08/27/2023: The lives of Mary Magdalene. Review of: Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History / Philip C. Almond.
Debbie Hayton. 09/10/2023: Tenderness and truth: What should parents do about gender-nonconforming kids? Review of: When Kids Say They’re Trans: A Guide for Thoughtful Parents / Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano and Stella O’Malley.
Peter Caddick-Adams. 09/16/2023: The rise and rise of military history. Review of: Conquer We Must: A Military History of Britain, 1914–1945 / Robin Prior.
Henry George. 09/10/2023: The end of liberalism? Review of: Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future / Patrick J. Deneen.
Matthew Reisz. Aug/Sept 2023: All aboard the ship of self-improvement: Why did NYU withdraw its support before the Floating University had left port? Review of: The Floating University: Experience, Empire and the Politics of Knowledge / Tamson Pietsch.
M.W. Pedersen. 08/27/2023: Effective affinities: Moral philosophy, the individual and the future. Review of: What We Owe the Future / William MacAskill.
James Stevens Curl. 08/27/2023: The lives of Mary Magdalene. Review of: Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History / Philip C. Almond.
Debbie Hayton. 09/10/2023: Tenderness and truth: What should parents do about gender-nonconforming kids? Review of: When Kids Say They’re Trans: A Guide for Thoughtful Parents / Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano and Stella O’Malley.
Peter Caddick-Adams. 09/16/2023: The rise and rise of military history. Review of: Conquer We Must: A Military History of Britain, 1914–1945 / Robin Prior.
Henry George. 09/10/2023: The end of liberalism? Review of: Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future / Patrick J. Deneen.
Matthew Reisz. Aug/Sept 2023: All aboard the ship of self-improvement: Why did NYU withdraw its support before the Floating University had left port? Review of: The Floating University: Experience, Empire and the Politics of Knowledge / Tamson Pietsch.
85featherbear
I read The Civil War: A Narrative over a long Thanksgiving weekend back in the day; Remembrance of Things Past in the Moncrieff translation took a bit longer.
Blake Smith. Tablet, 09/06/2023: The South’s Jewish Proust.
Blake Smith. Tablet, 09/06/2023: The South’s Jewish Proust.
86featherbear
Martha Ackmann. The Atlantic, 09/20/2023: What Emily Dickinson Left Behind: The winding story of how a trove of 8,000 of the poet’s family objects were saved.
89featherbear
TLS September 22, 2023|No. 6286
Featured
Henry Hitchings. The X files: Walter Isaacson’s intimate account of a tech titan. Review of: ELON MUSK / Walter Isaacson.
Mary Beard. Travels with his aunts: The intellectual life of a pioneering historian of Late Antiquity. Review of: JOURNEYS OF THE MIND: A life in history / Peter Brown.
Elaine Showalter. The new New Journalism: The woman who pioneered a genre ‘somewhere between report, essay and short story.’ Review of: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF JO ANN BEARD / Jo Ann Beard -- CHERI / Jo Ann Beard.
Victoria Kahn. Liberal leviathan: Hobbes’s classic reinvented for the modern age. Review of: THE NEW LEVIATHANS: Thoughts after liberalism / John Gray.
Literature
Georgina Wilson. Make the dead to live: A medical practitioner looks at the work of a celebrated forebear. Review of: SIR THOMAS BROWNE: The opium of time / Gavin Francis.
Katherine Turner. Mind of a murderer: William Cowper’s criminal admirer. (Essay)
Jane Darcy. ‘A little homestall’: How Jane Austen had a word with William Cowper. (Essay)
Gordon Fraser. Travelin’ man and woman: Taking to the road and the boxcar. Review of: THE AMERICAN VAGRANT IN LITERATURE: Race, work and welfare / Bryan Yazell -- VAGABONDS, TRAMPS, AND HOBOS: The literature and culture of U.S. transiency 1890–1940 / Owen Clayton.
Josh Weeks. The reader as juror: Bringing Pinochet’s dictatorship to book. Review of: 11 / Carlos Soto Román; edited by Thomas Rothe.
Jaya Savige. Resolute skin-shedder: A home-seeking voice lured by the Pacific. Review of: PACIFIC LIGHT / David Mason -- INCARNATION AND METAMORPHOSIS: Can literature change us? / David Mason -- THE COLOSSEUM CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO DAVID MASON /Gregory Dowling.
Costica Bradatan. College for clowns: The nomadic survivor of an ugly century. Review of: EXILED SHADOW: A novel in collage / Norman Manea; translated by Carla Baricz.
Lindsey Hilsum. Insistent racket: An Iraqi Kurd reckons with the fallout of American intervention. Review of: A LINE IN THE SAND / Kevin Powers.
Michael Hughes. PROPHET SONG / Paul Lynch.
Lindsay Duguid. That forever thing: Teenage angst darkens into adult anguish. Review of: ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER / Rose Tremain.
In Brief Review of: Last Poems / Thomas Kinsella.
In Brief Review of: THE UNBROKEN BEAUTY OF ROSALIND BONE / Alex McCarthy.
Arts
J.S. Barnes. Alien art forms: A celebration of the reluctant godfather of British SF. Review of Nigel Neale's radio serial: THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT: 70th Anniversary, "a rehearsed reading of all six episodes, from the unedited scripts, with the music and sound effects that were used in the first production" and a remake of Neale's radio play YOU MUST LISTEN.
Emily May. Dancing spirit: A groundbreaking company comes to London. Review of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre's Mixed Bill at Sadler’s Wells, London.
Philosophy
Rhoda Feng. Quality of mercy: The three ‘R’s of forgiveness: relief, release and reconciliation. Review of: FAILURES OF FORGIVENESS: What we get wrong and how to do better / Myisha Cherry.
Science & Technology
Alanna Collen. Life, but not as we know it: Our microscopic allies in the fight against bacteria. Review of: THE GOOD VIRUS: The untold story of phages: The most abundant life forms on Earth and what they can do for us / Tom Ireland.
Christopher Mole. The twitch of a frog’s leg: Electric charges in the human body. Review of: WE ARE ELECTRIC / Sally Adee. Note: British subtitle: The new science of our body’s electrome; American subtitle: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds
Jennie Erin Smith. As ye sow: A surprising human narrative of climate disaster. Review of: FIRE WEATHER: A true story from a hotter world / John Vaillant.
In Brief Review of: NATURE’S MESSENGER: Mark Catesby and his adventures in a new world / Patrick Dean.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Robert Irwin. Cross and crescent: Diplomacy across the religious divide during the reign of Charlemagne. Review of: THE EMPEROR AND THE ELEPHANT: Christians and Muslims in the age of Charlemagne / Sam Ottewill-Soulsby.
Anna Parker. Tis the fashion: The rich and strange world of early modern beauty and cosmetic. Review of: HOW TO BE A RENAISSANCE WOMAN: The untold history of beauty and female creativity / Jill Burke.
Norma Clarke. Businessmen don’t type: What young women did for a living before they were allowed careers. Review of: JOBS FOR THE GIRLS: How we set out to work in the typewriter age / Ysenda Maxtone Graham.
Lisa Hilton. A big nothing: The meretricious life of John F. Kennedy’s widow. Review of: JACKIE: Public, private, secret / J. Randy Taraborrelli.
Ian Sansom. Drone on!: The literature of modern war. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: THE MEDDLERS: Sovereignty, Empire, and the birth of global economic governance / Jamie Martin.
In Brief Review of: GOD IN NUMBER 10: The personal faith of the prime ministers, from Balfour to Blair / Mark Vickers.
In Brief Review of: THE STIRRINGS: A memoir in Northern time / Catherine Taylor.
Featured
Henry Hitchings. The X files: Walter Isaacson’s intimate account of a tech titan. Review of: ELON MUSK / Walter Isaacson.
Mary Beard. Travels with his aunts: The intellectual life of a pioneering historian of Late Antiquity. Review of: JOURNEYS OF THE MIND: A life in history / Peter Brown.
Elaine Showalter. The new New Journalism: The woman who pioneered a genre ‘somewhere between report, essay and short story.’ Review of: THE COLLECTED WORKS OF JO ANN BEARD / Jo Ann Beard -- CHERI / Jo Ann Beard.
Victoria Kahn. Liberal leviathan: Hobbes’s classic reinvented for the modern age. Review of: THE NEW LEVIATHANS: Thoughts after liberalism / John Gray.
Literature
Georgina Wilson. Make the dead to live: A medical practitioner looks at the work of a celebrated forebear. Review of: SIR THOMAS BROWNE: The opium of time / Gavin Francis.
Katherine Turner. Mind of a murderer: William Cowper’s criminal admirer. (Essay)
Jane Darcy. ‘A little homestall’: How Jane Austen had a word with William Cowper. (Essay)
Gordon Fraser. Travelin’ man and woman: Taking to the road and the boxcar. Review of: THE AMERICAN VAGRANT IN LITERATURE: Race, work and welfare / Bryan Yazell -- VAGABONDS, TRAMPS, AND HOBOS: The literature and culture of U.S. transiency 1890–1940 / Owen Clayton.
Josh Weeks. The reader as juror: Bringing Pinochet’s dictatorship to book. Review of: 11 / Carlos Soto Román; edited by Thomas Rothe.
Jaya Savige. Resolute skin-shedder: A home-seeking voice lured by the Pacific. Review of: PACIFIC LIGHT / David Mason -- INCARNATION AND METAMORPHOSIS: Can literature change us? / David Mason -- THE COLOSSEUM CRITICAL INTRODUCTION TO DAVID MASON /Gregory Dowling.
Costica Bradatan. College for clowns: The nomadic survivor of an ugly century. Review of: EXILED SHADOW: A novel in collage / Norman Manea; translated by Carla Baricz.
Lindsey Hilsum. Insistent racket: An Iraqi Kurd reckons with the fallout of American intervention. Review of: A LINE IN THE SAND / Kevin Powers.
Michael Hughes. PROPHET SONG / Paul Lynch.
Lindsay Duguid. That forever thing: Teenage angst darkens into adult anguish. Review of: ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER / Rose Tremain.
In Brief Review of: Last Poems / Thomas Kinsella.
In Brief Review of: THE UNBROKEN BEAUTY OF ROSALIND BONE / Alex McCarthy.
Arts
J.S. Barnes. Alien art forms: A celebration of the reluctant godfather of British SF. Review of Nigel Neale's radio serial: THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT: 70th Anniversary, "a rehearsed reading of all six episodes, from the unedited scripts, with the music and sound effects that were used in the first production" and a remake of Neale's radio play YOU MUST LISTEN.
Emily May. Dancing spirit: A groundbreaking company comes to London. Review of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre's Mixed Bill at Sadler’s Wells, London.
Philosophy
Rhoda Feng. Quality of mercy: The three ‘R’s of forgiveness: relief, release and reconciliation. Review of: FAILURES OF FORGIVENESS: What we get wrong and how to do better / Myisha Cherry.
Science & Technology
Alanna Collen. Life, but not as we know it: Our microscopic allies in the fight against bacteria. Review of: THE GOOD VIRUS: The untold story of phages: The most abundant life forms on Earth and what they can do for us / Tom Ireland.
Christopher Mole. The twitch of a frog’s leg: Electric charges in the human body. Review of: WE ARE ELECTRIC / Sally Adee. Note: British subtitle: The new science of our body’s electrome; American subtitle: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds
Jennie Erin Smith. As ye sow: A surprising human narrative of climate disaster. Review of: FIRE WEATHER: A true story from a hotter world / John Vaillant.
In Brief Review of: NATURE’S MESSENGER: Mark Catesby and his adventures in a new world / Patrick Dean.
History, Politics, Society, & Culture
Robert Irwin. Cross and crescent: Diplomacy across the religious divide during the reign of Charlemagne. Review of: THE EMPEROR AND THE ELEPHANT: Christians and Muslims in the age of Charlemagne / Sam Ottewill-Soulsby.
Anna Parker. Tis the fashion: The rich and strange world of early modern beauty and cosmetic. Review of: HOW TO BE A RENAISSANCE WOMAN: The untold history of beauty and female creativity / Jill Burke.
Norma Clarke. Businessmen don’t type: What young women did for a living before they were allowed careers. Review of: JOBS FOR THE GIRLS: How we set out to work in the typewriter age / Ysenda Maxtone Graham.
Lisa Hilton. A big nothing: The meretricious life of John F. Kennedy’s widow. Review of: JACKIE: Public, private, secret / J. Randy Taraborrelli.
Ian Sansom. Drone on!: The literature of modern war. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: THE MEDDLERS: Sovereignty, Empire, and the birth of global economic governance / Jamie Martin.
In Brief Review of: GOD IN NUMBER 10: The personal faith of the prime ministers, from Balfour to Blair / Mark Vickers.
In Brief Review of: THE STIRRINGS: A memoir in Northern time / Catherine Taylor.
90featherbear
Headline of the day from The Guardian:
Ella Creamer. 09/20/2023: Amazon restricts authors from self-publishing more than three books a day after AI concerns.
Ella Creamer. 09/20/2023: Amazon restricts authors from self-publishing more than three books a day after AI concerns.
91featherbear
Martin Pengelly. The Guardian, 09/21/2023: Key takeaways from Michael Wolff’s book on Murdoch, Fox and US politics. The book being The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty; coincidentally, Rupert Murdoch announced he will be retiring.
92featherbear
Gita Mehta, 1942-2023
Neil Genzlinger. NYT, 09/21/2023: Gita Mehta, Whose Writing Shaped Perspectives of India, Dies at 80. Author of: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East -- Raj -- Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of India.
Neil Genzlinger. NYT, 09/21/2023: Gita Mehta, Whose Writing Shaped Perspectives of India, Dies at 80. Author of: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East -- Raj -- Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of India.
93featherbear
Recently on LARB:
Weiling Ding. 09/23/2023: The Chinese Restaurant on Main Street, USA. Review of: From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded the Restaurant Business in the United States / Zai Liang.
Brynn Shiovitz. LARB, 09/22/2023: An Excuse to Make Noise. Review of: Astaire by Numbers: Time & the Straight White Male Dancer / Todd Decker and Dancing Down the Barricades: Sammy Davis Jr. and the Long Civil Rights Era / Matthew Frye Jacobson.
Sumana Roy. 09/22/2023: The IIC School Versus the JLF School of Indian English. On Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial India / Akshya Saxena.
Weiling Ding. 09/23/2023: The Chinese Restaurant on Main Street, USA. Review of: From Chinatown to Every Town: How Chinese Immigrants Have Expanded the Restaurant Business in the United States / Zai Liang.
Brynn Shiovitz. LARB, 09/22/2023: An Excuse to Make Noise. Review of: Astaire by Numbers: Time & the Straight White Male Dancer / Todd Decker and Dancing Down the Barricades: Sammy Davis Jr. and the Long Civil Rights Era / Matthew Frye Jacobson.
Sumana Roy. 09/22/2023: The IIC School Versus the JLF School of Indian English. On Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial India / Akshya Saxena.
94featherbear
Riley Moore interviews Zachary Leader, biographer of Saul Bellow: 09/22/2023: ‘Augie March’ Turns 70. Regarding: The Adventures of Augie March / Saul Bellow.
95featherbear
Recently from The Millions:
Marissa Higgins. 09/21/2023: Maria Bamford Has Been Having Some Weird Thoughts. An interview of Bamford concerning her Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere.
Jennifer Savran Kelly. 09/20/2023: The Generative Joys of Bookbinding.
Gideon Leek. 09/18/2023: The Orthodoxy of Paradox. Review of: The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality / William Egginton.
Brendan Driscoll. 09/15/2023: Chloe Aridjis’s Night-Sea Journey. Review of: Dialogue with a Somnambulist: Stories, Essays & A Portrait Gallery / Chloe Aridjis.
Kazuo Robinson. 09/14/2023: The Ambitious Anachronism of ‘The Fraud.’ Review of: The Fraud: a novel / Zadie Smith.
GD Dess. 09/13/2023: The Timely Provocations of Matthew Gasda. Review of: Dimes Square and other plays / Matthew Gasda.
Michael O'Donnell. 09/12/2023: Scenes from a Literary Marriage. Review of: Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's invisible life / Anna Funder. (Mrs George Orwell's invisible life)
Lawrence Wright. 09/06/2023: Lawrence Wright on Larry McMurtry. Excerpt from Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry / edited by George Getschow.
Marissa Higgins. 09/21/2023: Maria Bamford Has Been Having Some Weird Thoughts. An interview of Bamford concerning her Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere.
Jennifer Savran Kelly. 09/20/2023: The Generative Joys of Bookbinding.
Gideon Leek. 09/18/2023: The Orthodoxy of Paradox. Review of: The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality / William Egginton.
Brendan Driscoll. 09/15/2023: Chloe Aridjis’s Night-Sea Journey. Review of: Dialogue with a Somnambulist: Stories, Essays & A Portrait Gallery / Chloe Aridjis.
Kazuo Robinson. 09/14/2023: The Ambitious Anachronism of ‘The Fraud.’ Review of: The Fraud: a novel / Zadie Smith.
GD Dess. 09/13/2023: The Timely Provocations of Matthew Gasda. Review of: Dimes Square and other plays / Matthew Gasda.
Michael O'Donnell. 09/12/2023: Scenes from a Literary Marriage. Review of: Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's invisible life / Anna Funder. (Mrs George Orwell's invisible life)
Lawrence Wright. 09/06/2023: Lawrence Wright on Larry McMurtry. Excerpt from Pastures of the Empty Page: Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry / edited by George Getschow.
97featherbear
"Two years into a surge in book banning efforts across the country, restrictions that were largely happening in school libraries, where they affected children, are now affecting the wider community as well."
Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter. NYT, 09/21/2023: Book Bans Are Rising Sharply in Public Libraries.
Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Alter. NYT, 09/21/2023: Book Bans Are Rising Sharply in Public Libraries.
98featherbear
Jeff Jarvis. Atlantic, 09/24/2023: I Was Wrong About the Death of the Book: And Umberto Eco was right.
99featherbear
Popular historical fiction, "an industrious book":
Katherine Powers. WaPo, 09/24/2023: Ken Follett’s new book shows why he’s a master of the historical novel. Review of: The Armor of Light / Ken Follett.
Just noticed the book retails for $38; book plus dinner at the airport w/slushie=$78; inflation.
Katherine Powers. WaPo, 09/24/2023: Ken Follett’s new book shows why he’s a master of the historical novel. Review of: The Armor of Light / Ken Follett.
Just noticed the book retails for $38; book plus dinner at the airport w/slushie=$78; inflation.
100featherbear
Becca Rothfeld. Yale Review, 09/18/2023: In the Shallows: Why do public intellectuals condescend to their readers?
101featherbear
David Barnett. BBC Culture, 09/21/2023: 'Cosy crime' novels: Are they brilliant entertainment or 'twee and insipid'? Regarding author Richard Osman.
102featherbear
From the rejuvenated Bookforum's summer 2023 issue:
Christian Lorentzen. Shocks to the System: Don DeLillo’s novels of the Cold War and its aftermath. Review of 2 Library of America reissues of DeLillo's novels: THREE NOVELS OF THE 1980S: THE NAMES / WHITE NOISE / LIBRA and MAO II & UNDERWORLD.
Charlie Tyson. Quiet Quitting: Franz Kafka’s work-life imbalance. Review of: THE DIARIES OF FRANZ KAFKA / TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN BY ROSS BENJAMIN.
Moira Donegan. Radical Attention: Pioneering therapist Judith Herman’s studies of trauma and justice. Review of: TRUTH AND REPAIR: HOW TRAUMA SURVIVORS ENVISION JUSTICE / JUDITH L. HERMAN.
Tarpley Hitt. Commit to the Bit: An actor and a journalist chronicle the crypto crash. Review of: EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD / BEN MCKENZIE AND JACOB SILVERMAN.
Sasha Frere-Jones. Spit Happens: The elusive art of Harry Smith. Review of: COSMIC SCHOLAR: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARRY SMITH / JOHN SZWED.
Mina Tavakoli. Diary of a Reducer: Henry Bean's lost classic novel of a man in search of a muse. Review of: THE NENOQUICH / HENRY BEAN.
Christian Lorentzen. Shocks to the System: Don DeLillo’s novels of the Cold War and its aftermath. Review of 2 Library of America reissues of DeLillo's novels: THREE NOVELS OF THE 1980S: THE NAMES / WHITE NOISE / LIBRA and MAO II & UNDERWORLD.
Charlie Tyson. Quiet Quitting: Franz Kafka’s work-life imbalance. Review of: THE DIARIES OF FRANZ KAFKA / TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN BY ROSS BENJAMIN.
Moira Donegan. Radical Attention: Pioneering therapist Judith Herman’s studies of trauma and justice. Review of: TRUTH AND REPAIR: HOW TRAUMA SURVIVORS ENVISION JUSTICE / JUDITH L. HERMAN.
Tarpley Hitt. Commit to the Bit: An actor and a journalist chronicle the crypto crash. Review of: EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD / BEN MCKENZIE AND JACOB SILVERMAN.
Sasha Frere-Jones. Spit Happens: The elusive art of Harry Smith. Review of: COSMIC SCHOLAR: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARRY SMITH / JOHN SZWED.
Mina Tavakoli. Diary of a Reducer: Henry Bean's lost classic novel of a man in search of a muse. Review of: THE NENOQUICH / HENRY BEAN.
103featherbear
TLS September 29, 2023|No. 6287
Featured
Peter Holland. Our Shakespeare, rise: Works to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the First Folio. Review of: ANNE-THOLOGY: Poems re-presenting Anne Shakespeare / Paul Edmundson et al, editors -- SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO: Four centuries of an iconic book / Emma Smith -- SHAKESPEARE’S BOOK: The intertwined lives behind the First Folio / Chris Laoutaris -- MY SHAKESPEARE: A director’s journey through the First Folio / Gregory Doran.
Adam Rutherford. Germ of an idea: How disease has shaped global history. Review of: FOREIGN BODIES: Pandemics, vaccines and the health of nations / Simon Schama -- PATHOGENESIS: How germs made history / Jonathan Kennedy.
Norma Clarke. Required reading: Elizabeth Jane Howard is much more than a guilty pleasure. (Essay)
Andrew Van Der Vlies. Alternative realities: Four novels of queer experience. Review of: WOUND / Oksana Vasyakina; translated by Elina Alter -- THE LOVE OF SINGULAR MEN / Victor Heringer; translated by James Young -- USER / Bruce Benderson -- PLEASURE BEACH / Helen Palmer.
Literature
Mary L. Shannon. Horsiculture: Anna and Mary Sewell, and the making of Black Beauty. Review of: WRITING BLACK BEAUTY: Anna Sewell and the story of animal rights / Celia Brayfield.
Vanessa Curtis. Damaged spirit: The life and loves of a Bloomsbury poet. Review of: BLUE EYES AND A WILD SPIRIT: A Life of Dorothy Wellesley / Jane Wellesley.
Eric Naiman. All is permitted?: The values of the Russian realists and the intelligentsia. Review of: WONDER CONFRONTS CERTAINTY: Russian writers on the timeless questions and why their answers matter / Gary Saul Morson.
Derek Offord. Diary of a Russian Romantic: Andrei Turgenev’s search for a beautiful soul. Review of: THE EMERGENCE OF A HERO: A tale of romantic love in Russia around 1800 / Andrei Zorin; translated by Leo Shtutin.
Elizabeth Lowry. Beyond the grave: Thomas Hardy’s tortured relationship with his first wife. Review of: WOMAN MUCH MISSED: Thomas Hardy, Emma Hardy, and poetry / Mark Ford.
Hannah Vos. Out stealing moonlight: Anne Stevenson’s haunted, sensuous collected poems. Review of: Anne Stevenson: Collected Poems / Anne Stevenson.
Damon Galgut. Who we choose to love: A tiny group of connected lives. Review of: FAMILY MEAL / Bryan Washington.
Craig Raine. Great minds think alike: Literary thefts and coincidences. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: THE HOUSE OF LOVE AND PRAYER / Tova Reich.
Arts
Maria Margoranis. Fairy dust for the masses: Patsy Ferran is outstanding in a ‘dated’ production of Shaw’s play. Review of a performance of Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, The Old Vic, until October 28.
Madeleine Brettingham. He’s got it in for them: A clear-eyed look at what Britain has laughed at. Review of: DIFFERENT TIMES: A history of British comedy / David Stubbs.
Flora Willson. Life in the dead season: New music from the Proms, Grimeborn and Tête-à-Tête. New music from composers: Judith Weir, PROM 51: Begin Afresh, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall -- Julia Adolphe, PROM 52: Makeshift Castle, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall -- Lisa Logan, BRONTË: The opera Keynote Opera in association with Docklands Sinfonia, Grimeborn -- Amy Bryce and Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser, PLASTIC BODIES: Tête-à-Tête: The Opera Festival.
In Brief Review of: THEOLOGY AND HORROR: Explorations of the dark religious imagination / Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead, editors.
Science & Technology
Andrew Robinson. A genius and his pipe: A ‘mosaic’ biography of an exceptional scientist. Review of: EINSTEIN IN TIME AND SPACE: Life in 99 particles / Samuel Graydon.
Isaac Nowell. Song dreams: Aural wonders and curiosities from the great outdoors. Review of: A BOOK OF NOISES: Notes on the auraculous / Caspar Henderson.
In Brief Review of: RAW DOG: The naked truth about hot dogs / Jamie Loftus.
In Brief Review of: OWN SWEET TIME / Caroline Clark. ("Thoughtful reflections on the experience of illness")
In Brief Review of: THE DARK CLOUD: How the digital world is costing the earth / Guillaume Pitron; translated by Bianca Jacobsohn.
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Clifford Ando. Unknown emperors: The social meaning of centuries of one-man rule. Review of: EMPEROR OF ROME: Ruling the ancient Roman world / Mary Beard.
Emily Jones. SWIFTies: How America commands the networks that power the global economy. Review of: UNDERGROUND EMPIRE: How America weaponized the world economy / Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman.
Catriona Kelly. Economics of the madhouse: The peculiar history of the Russian ruble. Review of: THE RUBLE: A political history / Ekaterina Pravilova.
In Brief Review of: THIS RAGGED GRACE: A memoir of recovery and renewal / Olivia Bright.
In Brief Review of: MONDES INVISIBLES / Sylvain Ledda, editor.
Featured
Peter Holland. Our Shakespeare, rise: Works to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the First Folio. Review of: ANNE-THOLOGY: Poems re-presenting Anne Shakespeare / Paul Edmundson et al, editors -- SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO: Four centuries of an iconic book / Emma Smith -- SHAKESPEARE’S BOOK: The intertwined lives behind the First Folio / Chris Laoutaris -- MY SHAKESPEARE: A director’s journey through the First Folio / Gregory Doran.
Adam Rutherford. Germ of an idea: How disease has shaped global history. Review of: FOREIGN BODIES: Pandemics, vaccines and the health of nations / Simon Schama -- PATHOGENESIS: How germs made history / Jonathan Kennedy.
Norma Clarke. Required reading: Elizabeth Jane Howard is much more than a guilty pleasure. (Essay)
Andrew Van Der Vlies. Alternative realities: Four novels of queer experience. Review of: WOUND / Oksana Vasyakina; translated by Elina Alter -- THE LOVE OF SINGULAR MEN / Victor Heringer; translated by James Young -- USER / Bruce Benderson -- PLEASURE BEACH / Helen Palmer.
Literature
Mary L. Shannon. Horsiculture: Anna and Mary Sewell, and the making of Black Beauty. Review of: WRITING BLACK BEAUTY: Anna Sewell and the story of animal rights / Celia Brayfield.
Vanessa Curtis. Damaged spirit: The life and loves of a Bloomsbury poet. Review of: BLUE EYES AND A WILD SPIRIT: A Life of Dorothy Wellesley / Jane Wellesley.
Eric Naiman. All is permitted?: The values of the Russian realists and the intelligentsia. Review of: WONDER CONFRONTS CERTAINTY: Russian writers on the timeless questions and why their answers matter / Gary Saul Morson.
Derek Offord. Diary of a Russian Romantic: Andrei Turgenev’s search for a beautiful soul. Review of: THE EMERGENCE OF A HERO: A tale of romantic love in Russia around 1800 / Andrei Zorin; translated by Leo Shtutin.
Elizabeth Lowry. Beyond the grave: Thomas Hardy’s tortured relationship with his first wife. Review of: WOMAN MUCH MISSED: Thomas Hardy, Emma Hardy, and poetry / Mark Ford.
Hannah Vos. Out stealing moonlight: Anne Stevenson’s haunted, sensuous collected poems. Review of: Anne Stevenson: Collected Poems / Anne Stevenson.
Damon Galgut. Who we choose to love: A tiny group of connected lives. Review of: FAMILY MEAL / Bryan Washington.
Craig Raine. Great minds think alike: Literary thefts and coincidences. (Essay)
In Brief Review of: THE HOUSE OF LOVE AND PRAYER / Tova Reich.
Arts
Maria Margoranis. Fairy dust for the masses: Patsy Ferran is outstanding in a ‘dated’ production of Shaw’s play. Review of a performance of Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, The Old Vic, until October 28.
Madeleine Brettingham. He’s got it in for them: A clear-eyed look at what Britain has laughed at. Review of: DIFFERENT TIMES: A history of British comedy / David Stubbs.
Flora Willson. Life in the dead season: New music from the Proms, Grimeborn and Tête-à-Tête. New music from composers: Judith Weir, PROM 51: Begin Afresh, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall -- Julia Adolphe, PROM 52: Makeshift Castle, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall -- Lisa Logan, BRONTË: The opera Keynote Opera in association with Docklands Sinfonia, Grimeborn -- Amy Bryce and Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser, PLASTIC BODIES: Tête-à-Tête: The Opera Festival.
In Brief Review of: THEOLOGY AND HORROR: Explorations of the dark religious imagination / Brandon R. Grafius and John W. Morehead, editors.
Science & Technology
Andrew Robinson. A genius and his pipe: A ‘mosaic’ biography of an exceptional scientist. Review of: EINSTEIN IN TIME AND SPACE: Life in 99 particles / Samuel Graydon.
Isaac Nowell. Song dreams: Aural wonders and curiosities from the great outdoors. Review of: A BOOK OF NOISES: Notes on the auraculous / Caspar Henderson.
In Brief Review of: RAW DOG: The naked truth about hot dogs / Jamie Loftus.
In Brief Review of: OWN SWEET TIME / Caroline Clark. ("Thoughtful reflections on the experience of illness")
In Brief Review of: THE DARK CLOUD: How the digital world is costing the earth / Guillaume Pitron; translated by Bianca Jacobsohn.
History, Politics, Society & Culture
Clifford Ando. Unknown emperors: The social meaning of centuries of one-man rule. Review of: EMPEROR OF ROME: Ruling the ancient Roman world / Mary Beard.
Emily Jones. SWIFTies: How America commands the networks that power the global economy. Review of: UNDERGROUND EMPIRE: How America weaponized the world economy / Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman.
Catriona Kelly. Economics of the madhouse: The peculiar history of the Russian ruble. Review of: THE RUBLE: A political history / Ekaterina Pravilova.
In Brief Review of: THIS RAGGED GRACE: A memoir of recovery and renewal / Olivia Bright.
In Brief Review of: MONDES INVISIBLES / Sylvain Ledda, editor.
104featherbear
Alex Reisner. Atlantic, 09/25/2023: THESE 183,000 BOOKS ARE FUELING THE BIGGEST FIGHT IN PUBLISHING AND TECH.
105featherbear
Rosemarie Ostler. Lapham's Quarterly, 09/15/2023: The Early Days of American English: How English words evolved on a foreign continent.
106featherbear
Kyle Chayka. New Yorker, 09/26/2023: Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I.. Review of: Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech / Brian Merchant.
108featherbear
"Five decades ago, an award-winning Malian author disappeared from public life after being accused of plagiarism. Now, his ambiguous novel is being released, and evaluated, in new light."
Elian Peltier. NYT, 09/27/2023: Plagiarist or Master? The Tortured Legacy of Yambo Ouologuem. (The novel is Le Devoir de Violence, translated as Bound to Violence)
Elian Peltier. NYT, 09/27/2023: Plagiarist or Master? The Tortured Legacy of Yambo Ouologuem. (The novel is Le Devoir de Violence, translated as Bound to Violence)
110featherbear
L. Wayne Hicks. crimereads, 09/27/2023: SPENSER AT 50: THE EVOLUTION OF ROBERT B. PARKER'S ICONIC CHARACTER.
111rosalita
>110 featherbear: Thanks for the link to the Spenser retrospective. That was one of my favorite mystery series from the time I first picked up Mortal Stakes at the Galesburg Public Library circa 1980. I make it a point to never read series continuations by other authors, but the praise in that post for Ace Atkins' work is notable.
112featherbear
"As (Daniel Dennett) publishes his memoir, I’ve Been Thinking, he talks us through some of the books that most influenced him, including two by evolutionary biologists."
Daniel Dennett, interviewed by Nigel Warburton. fivebooks.com, Favorite Books recommended by Daniel Dennett.
Word and Object / Willard Van Orman Quine.
The Selfish Gene / Richard Dawkins.
I Am a Strange Loop / Douglas Hofstadter.
Beyond Concepts: Unicepts, Language, and Natural Information / Ruth Millkan.
From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves, and the Meanings of Life / David Haig.
Daniel Dennett, interviewed by Nigel Warburton. fivebooks.com, Favorite Books recommended by Daniel Dennett.
Word and Object / Willard Van Orman Quine.
The Selfish Gene / Richard Dawkins.
I Am a Strange Loop / Douglas Hofstadter.
Beyond Concepts: Unicepts, Language, and Natural Information / Ruth Millkan.
From Darwin to Derrida: Selfish Genes, Social Selves, and the Meanings of Life / David Haig.
113featherbear
Katie Kadue. The Public Domain, 09/27/2023: Free Speech and Bad Meats: The Domestic Labour of Reading in Milton’s Areopagitica.
114featherbear
Oliver Traldi. WaPo, 09/27/2023: A comprehensive and reasonable account of ‘woke’ ideology. Review of: The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time / Yascha Mounk.
115featherbear
Isabel Ruehl. LARB, 09/28/2023: Stories We Tell: The Promise and Peril of Mental Illness Narratives. Review of: Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us / Rachel Aviv -- While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence / Meg Kissinger.
116featherbear
Love themes:
Jennifer Wilson. New Yorker, 09/25/2023: J. M. Coetzee’s Interlingual Romance. Review of: The Pole: a novel / J.M. Coetzee.
Malcolm Forbes. WaPo, 09/28/2023: Artists went wild just before WWII. Then freedom gave way to madness. Review of: Love in a Time of Hate: Art and Passion in the Shadow of War / Florian Illies; translated by Simon Pare.
Jennifer Wilson. New Yorker, 09/25/2023: J. M. Coetzee’s Interlingual Romance. Review of: The Pole: a novel / J.M. Coetzee.
Malcolm Forbes. WaPo, 09/28/2023: Artists went wild just before WWII. Then freedom gave way to madness. Review of: Love in a Time of Hate: Art and Passion in the Shadow of War / Florian Illies; translated by Simon Pare.
117featherbear
"The majority of all school book challenges in the United States came from just 11 people. Meet Jennifer Petersen."
Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 09/28/2023: She challenges one school book a week. She says she’ll never stop.
Hannah Natanson. WaPo, 09/28/2023: She challenges one school book a week. She says she’ll never stop.
118featherbear
Lisa Bubert. Longreads, 09/19/2023: Librarians on the Front Lines: A Reading List for Library Lovers and Realists.
119featherbear
Rachel Scarborough King & Seth Rudy. Aeon, 09/29/2023: The ends of knowledge: Academics need to think harder about the purpose of their disciplines and whether some of those should come to an end.
120featherbear
This thread is continued by Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-4 Oct.-Dec..
