Poetry in Motion
"Sinatra's Century" offers multiple views of a subject that fascinates its author.
Biography & Autobiography
"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn
Reading Madame Bovary in the Provinces
"Madame Bovary" — a text that, together with Camembert, Côtes du Rhône, and French kissing, may stand as one of France's most enduring cultural exports.
A Lady’s Vindication: “Lady Byron and Her Daughters” Attempts to Set the Record Straight
A new biography of Lady Byron, wife of the notorious Romantic poet, again raises issues of what it means to write the life of a woman overshadowed by a powerful man.
The Selling of “Main Street America”: On Daniel de Visé’s Andy & Don
When the mega-hit TV show they starred in had aired its final episode, Andy Griffith and Don Knotts maintained their friendship.
David Bowie and the 1970s: Testing the Limits of the Gendered Body
David Bowie and the 1970s: Testing the Limits of the Gendered Body
The Lynchian Sensibility: An Interview with Dennis Lim
"The first time I asked David Lynch if he could define the word 'Lynchian,' he changed the subject."
Moon Magic
John Tytell reviews Judith Malina's "Full Moon Stages: Personal Notes from 50 Years of The Living Theatre."
“It’s time for something else to happen”: The Perpetual Motion Machine That Is Grace Jones
A woman abstracted. Grace Jones has a written her memoir on "the me" that she has "made up" rather than the one others made up.
What Is Left to Say About Gore Vidal?
Since his death in 2012, Gore Vidal's vice has been further disclosed in splashy books. Jay Parini's "Empire of Self," however, is a new and full biography.
More than One-Liners: A New Biography of Gore Vidal
"Perhaps that's the best we can say about anybody who's gone: we could do with him now."
Pop Music, Not Confession
Weighing in at a hefty 670 pages, "Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink" is an impressively detailed, career-spanning narrative.
An All or Nothing Gamble: Václav Havel and His Spiritual Revolution
It is difficult not to romanticize the Havel story.
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