When attempting to write a review of the official Susan Sontag biography, our reviewer finds himself on shaky ground after learning new information about the author.
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Posted inNonfiction
‘There’s Virtually No Conversation In Chicago … About the Aftershocks of the Violence.’
In “An American Summer,” journalist Alex Kotlowitz tries to report on gun deaths on Chicago’s South Side with the same attention to survivors, anniversaries, and aftershocks that is paid to mass shootings.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
‘I Cannot Name Any Emotion That Is Uniquely Human.’
According to primatologist Frans de Waal, we don’t like to admit that animals, especially apes, have emotions just like ours, and science has become better at studying apes’ behaviors than human ones.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Story
Stumbling Into Joy
The electric bass chose her, but it took 44 years to heed the call.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Feature, Nonfiction, Story
In Defense of Boris the Russki
Ayşegül Savaş calls into question a kind of racism in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, and laments the liberal reluctance to rebuke discrimination outright, regardless of its targets.
Posted inNonfiction
Losing My Religion at Christian Camp
Katy Hershberger recalls the way her decade at Christian summer camp both shaped and condemned her views of faith and girlhood.
Posted inArts & Culture, Quotes
The Rising Seas Are Coming From Inside the House
On Game of Thrones and climate change: “Every city in the world is built on wildfire.”
Posted inNonfiction
The Growing Power of Prosecutors
An unintended consequence of mandatory minimums has been to concentrate too much power in the hands of prosecutors. Journalist Emily Bazelon talks about how some cities are pushing back.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story
American Dirt: A Bridge to Nowhere
“Jeanine Cummins can write about Mexico — but she will be judged on whether her writing actually captures the experiential and emotional and ethical complexity of that place, and she will be judged with extra care because she is an outsider.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
And They Do Not Stop Until Dusk
I’ve never known what it means to feel Jewish, but I still have a past — I have György Román, who painted dreams and saw nightmares.
