When the tenor of politics is inflamed, partisan bickering precludes historical perspective. As attacks and recriminations pile up, politicians and pundits focus on the contests at hand and resort to…
Ha Jin’s new book, The Crazed, addresses a wide range of philosophical, moral, political, and historical issues, while maintaining a tight plot, lyrical style, and convincing, engaging characters. Jin uses…
In her second novel, The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith tells the story of a man infatuated with fame. Alex-Li Tandem is a collector of autographs, the timeless signatures of individuals…
You can learn a lot about the gay gene discourse from the title of Robert Alan Brookey’s new book. Specifically, two things deserve note: “invention” as the recurring process by…
In a time of disaster one can always revert to storytelling. At least that’s the tradition that Boccaccio hands down to us, and Umberto Eco, ever mindful of the past,…
An exhibit at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg is called Dvoe, or “Twosome.” It pairs paintings and sculptures to suggest dualities in Russian art: East vs. West, peasant vs.…
This issue’s contributor, Toni Dorfman, is a playwright and an associate professor of Theater Studies at Yale. Her plays include Family Wolf and Rounding Cassiopiea. Dear Student, Your heart is…
Mismatch: The Growing Gulf between Women and Men, by Andrew Hacker (Scribner; $25) Inequality in the boardroom and infidelity in the bedroom are complicating relationships between the sexes like never…
Amy Bloom Lecturer, English Department My summer reading ranged from the minor (the Robert Tannenbaum mysteries—with Butch Karp, the DA with the soul of a Jewish mother and his sexy,…
They say it’s for your protection. First, it’s the increase in metal detectors. Then, the search and seizures. Random drug tests. Censored books. After the tragedy, you hear that it’s…
Peter Ibbetson