A new homeowner reads two novels that revolve around surreal home-invasion scenarios, and considers what it is about his house that scares him.
book reviews
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Essays & Criticism, History, Story
‘What Is Missing Is Her Soul’: Women and Art, Girls and Men
In a new book, Camille Laurens examines the life of the model for Degas’ masterpiece, “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen.” But there’s still so much we don’t know.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
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 inBooks, Current Events, Fiction, Story
A Citizen Is Obliged To Listen
When a refugee flees to another country and claims asylum, she is, in effect, petitioning the state to listen to her story.
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?
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Mothers of the Future
In a new memoir, Sophia Shalmiyev attempts to reunite with her missing mother through scraps, signs, and surrogates.
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 inArts & Culture, Books, Nonfiction, Story
Edward Gorey: A Highly Conjectural Man
When asked if there was “anything people don’t understand” about him, Gorey responded: “Yes. No. Yes. No.” A new biography by Mark Dery attempts to sort myth from reality.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Essays & Criticism, Science & Nature, Story
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side
Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Fiction, Story
A Mysterious Crack Appears: Past Trauma and Future Doom Meet in “Friday Black”
In Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s fantastical short story collection, the strangest fantasy of all is that people try to act morally in a corrupt world.