Ruined California
"Gold Fame Citrus" seldom expresses a sense of nostalgia or elegy for a lost California.
All Reviews
A Curious George
Lary Wallace reviews "A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George."
Who’s That Man?
Wil Haygood gives a dramatic account of Thurgood Marshall's nomination to the Supreme Court in his book "Showdown."
Capitalism in a Bottle
Coca-Cola and Pepsi aren't really drinks manufacturers at all. For close to a century, they have made an extraordinary living from the power of suggestion.
Answers No One Wants to Hear
Charles Taylor reviews Michel Houellebecq's "Submission."
Deformed Symmetries
Stephen Sawyer on Michel Houellebecq's "Soumission" (Submission).
Portrait of a Coterie
Felix Bernstein's debut essay collection, "Notes on Post-Conceptual Poetry," is not what you would expect from a 23-year-old, Brooklyn-based writer and artist.
Why the Pilgrims Wore Beer Goggles
It’s a good time to rethink US history. So why not look at the role of alcohol? Cheever her new book asks who was loaded, and why did it matter?
Kiss of the Snake Woman
There is a long tradition of readers who pore over erotic fiction for the "good bits," savoring the sex scenes and skimming the rest.
Especially Heinous: Guilt and the Prosecution of Sex Crimes
Vanessa Place argues that to pretend sex criminals are inhuman is to excuse ourselves from showing calculated mercy to the hated and reviled.
Imagining the “Other”
Nazi propagandists instrumentalized and distorted Turkey for the political purposes of the Third Reich.
What Does Tom Mitchell Want?
Mitchell wants to discuss and describe how we experience (imagine) the world through images and as an image.
Ordinary Life: Greil Marcus, Commonplace Songs, and Commonplace Listening
Greil Marcus offers a perspective that's eclectic and that carves out an everyday space where the art of pop music is still possible.
The University of Nowhere: The False Promise of “Disruption”
Kevin Carey’s "The End of College" is the latest book to seize the imagination of disrupters. It touts massive changes for post-secondary education.
Joseph Roth, “The Hotel Years”
Joseph Roth’s work is so intimately preoccupied with modernity that no account of the cultural history of the era would be complete without it.
On Finks, Nobles, Snoops, Spies, Guards, and Ops
John Walton charts the historical origins of the crime story and the private eye.