Books
The archive, indispensable to the historian, may prove an unreliable ally of the memoirist. This is the case in Alexander Stille’s sprawling effort to comprehend, catalog, and memorialize three generations—including his own—of his family. READ MORE >>
Perhaps it’s the lackluster quality of recent Republican presidential nominees that is responsible for the current upsurge of interest in Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. Esteem for Ike has risen along with nostalgia for the peace and prosperity of the 1950s. Nixon has remained an intriguing figure for his dramatic highs and lows, his obvious psychological torment, and the poignant contrast between his comparative progressivism and the die-hard conservatism of the modern Republican Party. READ MORE >>
“The essay, as a literary form, is pretty well extinct,” Philip Larkin wrote gloomily in 1984. Extinct was the right word, capturing the sense of an organism that could no longer survive in a changed environment. READ MORE >>
Clive James—the Australian-born critic, poet, and TV personality—is beloved in Britain, where he has lived for five decades, for reasons that are difficult to translate to an American context. READ MORE >>
Do the classics matter? The Common Core State Standards—new, K-12 education rubrics that were rolled out in 2010 and have been implemented in 45 states and Washington, D.C.—seem conflicted about the answer. Their designer, David Coleman, is a self-professed atavist, and the standards praise the value of Ovid and Shakespeare. READ MORE >>
Like a late victorian clergyman sweating in the dark over his Doubts, I have moments when my faith in fiction falters and then comes to the edge of collapse. I find myself asking, “Am I really a believer?” And then, “Was I ever?” First to go are the disjointed, upended narratives of experimental fiction. Oh well ... Next, the virgin birth miracle of magical realism. But I was always Low Church on that one. It’s when the icy waters of skepticism start to rise round the skirts of realism herself that I know my long night has begun. READ MORE >>
It’s been ten years since The New York Times declared it socially acceptable to meet your mate on the Internet. READ MORE >>
A couple of years ago, David Shields hit something of a nerve with the publication of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto. It was made up of 618 short entries, some his own but most collected elsewhere. Only his publisher’s lawyers compelled him to cite the sources, which ranged from Walter Benjamin to Jennifer Jason Leigh. READ MORE >>
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has given new life to some very old myths about the papacy: that Saint Peter was the “first pope” and that Benedict, like all popes, was thus his successor. In fact, various popes forged this particular myth to harness the apostolic power, prestige, and affection associated with Peter. (This claim is easily falsified by examination of the non-biblical texts of the first century.) Later, popes claimed to be successors to Christ to augment their power even more. READ MORE >>
"WE KNOW BOOKS," promises a welcome banner atop the home page of Bookish.com, which launched last week after months of delays and three CEOs. This motto is, to a certain extent, demonstrably true. The venture is backed by Hachette Book Group, Penguin Book USA, and Simon and Schuster, and its editors' resumes include stints at those and other publishing houses. But it's less clear what Bookish is, exactly. READ MORE >>
