“Winners Take All” is an indictment of the insular, Disneyfied world of Ted Talks, “thought leaders” and philanthropy as self-help for rich people. But does it go far enough?
book reviews
Posted inBooks, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
To Tell the Story, These Journalists Became Part of the Story
In two recent books about immigrant families seeking asylum in the U.S., the authors’ attempts to help become part of their subjects’ stories.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story, Writing
The Writer Alone
A woman out of her mind, locked in an apartment. This, I believed, was the optimal, and probably only, condition under which art could be made.
Posted inBooks, Current Events, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Story
Hating Big Pharma Is Good, But Supply-Side Epidemic Theory Is Killing People
New books about the opioid crisis — “Dopesick,” “Fight for Space” and “American Fix” — have different ideas about who’s to blame and what to do next. Our critic says regulating supply can have deadly consequences, and we need to address users’ pain.
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women, Writing
Lyrical Ladies, Writing Women, and the Legend of Lauryn Hill
Joan Morgan’s “She Begat This” looks back at how Lauryn Hill crashed through hip-hop’s glass ceiling, while our critic looks at how the author and a cadre of black women writers did the same for hip-hop music journalism.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story
The Horse Was a Lie (The Horse Is Here With Us Now)
In Mario Chard’s “Land of Fire,” was it the truth or a lie that killed the migrants in the desert? And what if that’s the wrong question? What if we say it was a horse?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Essays & Criticism, Story
Defeating the Celluloid Axis
The invisible language of film permeates Christian Kracht’s “The Dead,” prose that is neutral and shot through with so much darkness, you occasionally can’t find the light.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
Michelle Tea and the Betrayal of Queer Memoir
Memoir is always a betrayal. When writing about life in queer subcultures, the harm of honesty can feel even greater.
Posted inBooks, Essays & Criticism, Story
What Ever Happened To the Truth?
Michiko Kakutani is interested in how the distinction between fact and fiction has blurred — and how this makes us all complicit.
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story
Hemingway’s Last Girl
A lot of women loved Hemingway. Should you?