The English Iliad
On three English translations of 'The Iliad'
October 30th, 2012“Hurt Into Poetry: On Poetry and Greece”By Stephanos Papadopoulos
Los Angeles Review of Books
Barbarism in Cultured Soil: Rushdie’s Great Pakistani Novel
On 'Shame,' Salman Rushdie's great "forgotten" novel
November 23rd, 2012
Between the Georges
He seemed poised at last for the first-class recognition he had worked for so vigorously his whole life.
December 4th, 2011
The Bradbury Era
Bradbury addresses every reader with a fatherly clarity. He’s instructive, in the profound sense of passing experience on.
June 11th, 2012
Ben-Gore
August 1st, 2012
Perfectly Plausible Worlds
He is both a post-national and post-postmodern writer on the one hand and quite simply a page-turner on the other.
August 31st, 2011
Literary Lout: Martin Amis Once Again Faces the Critics
A look at his past work and his newest novel, 'Lionel Asbo: State of England'
September 12th, 2012
VIDEO: The Question of Nonfiction
Six writers talk about truthiness in nonfiction.
April 15th, 2012
Let Us Not to Our Readers Condescend
True/Slant: D'Agata the Gambler and the Lifespan of a Debate
December 31st, 2012
In Search of Lost Plots: On Viktor Shklovsky
On recent translations of the Russian formalist's 'Bowstring' and 'Energy of Delusion'
October 24th, 2012
The Ghost of Books: Past, Present, and Future
"The Ghost of Books: Past, Present, and Future" is an experiment not in terror and not necessarily Dickensian.
December 23rd, 2011
Occupy Los Angeles Saturday October 15
Stop depositing your soul in the Lake of Fire
October 21st, 2011
Supreme Hubris: Theories of Judicial Activism
The inevitability of politics.
June 29th, 2012
Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Wolves
On the politicization of Wilder, author of 'Little House on the Prairie'
October 10th, 2012
Quotidian Stories
When asked which I might recommend that may have passed readers' notice, I settled on work by Jill Ciment and Jane Gardam.
August 29th, 2011
Genres
Film
"There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education." — Will Rogers... More
Biography & Autobiography
"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn... More
Art & Architecture
"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it." — Frank Zappa... More
Percival Everett
"Read. Always read. No one can take that away from you."... More
Charles Yu
... More
Literary Fiction
"Mere flim-flam stories, and nothing but shams and lies." — Miguel de Cervantes... More
SF
"The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it." — F... More