Archive

Travels in a Vanished City: On Timon Screech’s “Tokyo Before Tokyo” and Amy Stanley’s “Stranger in the Shogun’s City”
Paul Kreitman reviews Timon Screech’s “Tokyo Before Tokyo” and Amy Stanley’s “Stranger in the Shogun’s City.”
Paul KreitmanNov 11, 2020
Stranger Than Something That Is Already Strange: A Conversation with Namwali Serpell
The literary critic turned celebrated novelist discusses her new book, “Stranger Faces.”
Anastasia NikolisNov 11, 2020
Two Rings
I have a finger I can’t get my ring off of. Windex, I read. The dental floss trick. I told my small daughter I might have to get it cut off.
Rachel ShermanNov 11, 2020
- Nonfiction
Trump Derangement Syndrome, or How I Learned to Love America: On Ayad Akhtar’s “Homeland Elegies”
Jordan Elgrably reviews "Homeland Elegies," the new book from Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar.
Jordan ElgrablyNov 10, 2020
- Fiction
Cold Scrutiny and Venomous Complicity in Lina Wolff’s “Many People Die Like You”
Brendan Riley reviews the new story collection by Lina Wolff, "Many People Die Like You," translated by Saskia Vogel.
Brendan RileyNov 10, 2020
- Around the World
- Fiction
Creative-Critical, Inc.
Sumana RoyNov 10, 2020
End Times Exit Strategy: Fractals, Philosophy, and Ultimate Frisbee in David Hollander’s “Anthropica”
Brian Evenson dives into David Hollander’s “Anthropica” and finds it “precise, dense, and evocative.”
Brian EvensonNov 10, 2020
- Fiction
Dipayan Ghosh on Digital Democracy
Nov 10, 2020
America Starts Here: On “When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry”
Dean Rader considers “When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry,” edited by Joy Harjo.
Dean RaderNov 9, 2020
- Poetry
Foggy Notions
W. Patrick McCray on “Rational Fog” by historian M. Susan Lindee. It addresses how “scientific knowledge and military applications meet, maraud, and maim.”
W. Patrick McCrayNov 9, 2020
Histories of Violence: The Revolutionary Potential of Pacifism
Brad Evans speaks with Richard Jackson, the director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS).
Brad EvansNov 9, 2020
- Histories of Violence
Childhood: Sifting Facts from Fad-Driven Fancy
Reviewing “The Origins of You,” John G. Simmons touches on issues like how much parents matter and how insights from genetics are revamping old theories.
John Galbraith SimmonsNov 8, 2020
- Science & Technology
An Obsession with Chess: A Discussion of Walter Tevis’s “Queen's Gambit”
Robert Harrison talks to Walter Tevis, author of The Queen's Gambit
Nov 8, 2020
Reading and Writing Again: On Zadie Smith’s “Intimations”
Scott Korb reads Zadie Smith's newest essay collection, "Intimations."
Scott KorbNov 8, 2020
- Memoir & Essay
More of the Same: On Roger L. Martin’s “When More Is Not Better”
A new book promising to bring more humanity to capitalism is itself inhumane.
Matt JoyNov 8, 2020
- Economics and Finance
- Politics
Revisiting the Late Kevin O'Rourke's My Korea, a Curious Memoir of a Land that Gets in the Blood
Colin Marshall remembers Kevin O'Rourke's long-haul observations of changes in Korean society.
Colin MarshallNov 8, 2020