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The Wrath of the Gods: Surviving the Pandemic with Petronius, Fitzgerald, and Eliot
The "Satyricon" shaped two of the most important texts of the 20th century — and the Petronian "anti-epic" is still funny, even during Covid.
Fiction
"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain
That Day: On Vince Passaro’s “Crazy Sorrow”
A novel of two New Yorkers in love, in the shadow of the Twin Towers.
Poking at My Wounds: A Conversation with Judith Freeman
Scott Burton talks with Judith Freeman about her new novel, “MacArthur Park.”
“L.A.’s a Strange Place”: On Judith Freeman’s “MacArthur Park”
A new novel set in Los Angeles chronicles a tenacious friendship and a deteriorating neighborhood.
More to Admire: On Laura Marris’s Translation of Albert Camus’s “The Plague”
Robert Zaretsky admires the aesthetic and moral clarity of Laura Marris’s new translation of Camus’s “The Plague.”
Rooted in the Body: A Conversation with Shruti Swamy
Shruti Swamy discusses her debut novel, “The Archer.”
“My Fellow Beasts of Burden, My Cohabitants”: On Peter Singer’s Edition of Apuleius’s “The Golden Ass”
How an ancient human-to-animal metamorphosis might launch a shift in modern morals.
“An Ancestry’s Worth of Broken Hearts”: On Tiphanie Yanique’s “Monster in the Middle”
A scintillating novel about the complexities of race and the dislocations of migration.
Knowing Your Creeks: On Ash Davidson’s “Damnation Spring”
A review of Ash Davidson’s new novel about trees, pollution, and family.
Transfigurations of the Everyday: On Mario Levrero’s “The Luminous Novel”
The late Uruguayan author’s masterpiece is a triumph of procrastination.
In a Lonely Place: On Gaito Gazdanov’s “An Evening with Claire”
Phoebe Roberts plumbs the profound loneliness of “An Evening with Claire” by Gaito Gazdanov, translated from the Russian by Bryan Karetnyk.
The Question Is My Breath: On Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s “The Love Songs of W. E. B. du Bois”
Jeffers’s debut novel is a sweeping American epic of family secrets and generational legacies.
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