Morten Høi Jensen is a Danish American writer and the author, most recently, of The Master of Contradictions: Thomas Mann and the Making of The Magic Mountain (2025). A longtime contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books, he is currently the European liaison for Liberties: A Journal of Culture and Politics.
Morten Høi Jensen
Articles
Our Man in Marseille
Morten Høi Jensen reviews Uwe Wittstock’s “Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature,” translated by Daniel Bowles.
Zones of Independence: A Conversation with Adam Kirsch
Morten Høi Jensen asks Adam Kirsch about his new book, “Who Wants to Be a Jewish Writer?”
The Awful Shapelessness of Loss: On Katharine Smyth’s “All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf”
Morten Høi Jensen lingers over “All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf” by Katharine Smyth.
The Sufferings of Nietzsche
Morten Høi Jensen contemplates the fruitful sufferings of Nietzsche, as chronicled in recent books by Sue Prideaux and John Kaag.
Mirth and Melancholy: The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis
A newly translated compendium of Machado de Assis’s short fiction proves him to be an undisputed master of the form.
Darwin on Endless Trial
Morten Høi Jensen weighs two takes on Darwin’s legacy.
Flash and Lumber: Elizabeth Hardwick’s Essays
Morten Høi Jensen is swayed but not blinded by the flash of Elizabeth Hardwick’s inimitable essays.
C. E. Morgan’s Great American Novel
Morten Høi Jensen appreciates “The Sport of Kings,” a great American novel by C. E. Morgan.
“The Only Form in All the Arts”: On Rachel Cusk’s Autobiographical Fiction
Morten Høi Jensen considers the form of “Transit: A Novel” by Rachel Cusk.
Kafka: An End or a Beginning?
Morten Høi Jensen revisits the life and work of Franz Kafka.
The Unbearable Pathos of Thomas Mann
Britta Böhler has dramatized for us an important long weekend in Thomas Mann's life.
The Lightning Before Death: A Tribute to Clive James
Clive James's stature as a literary journalist and cultural critic ought to endure.
Me, Myself, and Hitler
Karl Ove Knausgaard cautiously observed a year after the Utøya massacre that Breivik and Hitler both shared characteristics of the true fanatic.
Avant Charlie: Flemming Rose and The Danish Cartoon Crisis
Flemming Rose’s "The Tyranny of Silence" is a subtly crafted and self-effacing investigation of the Danish Cartoon Crisis and the debates about free speech that surfaced in its wake.
Atheism and Its Discontents
What makes atheism so radically different is its desire to meet the extraordinary truth claims of religion head-on with rival propositions about the world.
The Hilarity of Evil
Morten Høi Jensen on 'The Zone of Interest' by Martin Amis.
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