“When I moved to Billtown, I worried most about whether fracking tainted groundwater. By the time I left the area, my biggest concern was whether the liberty granted to citizens to lease their land, or to otherwise act in ways that limits others’ access to environmental goods, taints democracy.”
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Posted inBooks, Fiction, Story
To Compromise With the Facts of Living
In Elizabeth McCracken’s new novel “Bowlaway,” the past and future are mysteriously entangled.
Posted inNonfiction
The Unreliable Reader
In Esmé Weijun Wang’s book of personal essays, “The Collected Schizophrenias,” it’s the reader, not the writer, who is an unreliable narrator.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Malfunctioning Sex Robot
“I was hired as an assassin. You don’t bring in a 37-year-old woman to review John Updike in the year of our Lord 2019 unless you’re hoping to see blood on the ceiling.” It’s all uphill (or downhill?) from this perfect lede.
Posted inCrime, Current Events, Highlight, Quotes
‘What’s this guy doing loose in Malheur County?’
He faked an insanity defense, got out, and immediately committed another crime, and this time people are dead. He’s going to plead insanity again.
Posted inCulture, Nonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes, Science & Nature
When the Climate Change Story Becomes Your Life Story
Moving from bustling, expensive Seattle to tiny Ashland, Oregon seemed like an improvement, until the forest fire season began.
Posted inHighlight, Profiles & Interviews, Quote Posts, Quotes
Vivian Gornick on ‘Political Activism as a Path Toward a Coherent Self’
“But writing itself, living a life defined by work and intellect rather than love or marriage, became her primary feminist commitment.”
Posted inTop 5
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from Ijeoma Oluo, Patricia Lockwood, Michael Shaw, Mairead Small Staid, and Adriana Gallardo.
Posted inBooks, Business, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Maybe What We Need Is … More Politics?
Recent books by economists who hope to “save capitalism” dismiss popular ideas as “just politics.” But why assume the popular is the enemy of the good?
