Books
This is a book for anyone interested not just in the economic state of the symphony orchestra, but in the overall financial health of the arts in the United States.
Read MoreItalian writer Niccolò Ammaniti usually writes with an unadorned style about moral predicaments of the young in small-town Italy. “Me and You,” a slender effort in all respects, covers this ground as well, with the difference that fourteen-year-old protagonist Lorenzo Cumi is from an affluent Roman family.
Read MoreIn “Art,” playwright Yasmina Reza uses theater to explore how powerfully we defend our fears and rationalizations.
Read MoreCertainly part of the power of Tomas Tranströmer’s poetry resides in how, having established a jagged consciousness, he leaves us in between—in a world full of questions that are not easily resolved.
Read MoreThe novel is a brilliant psychological thriller, and several other things as well — a very quiet love story, a narrative of a remarkable friendship between two men, and an exploration of the corruption rampant in Argentine politics in the late 60s and 70s.
Read MoreAn underground academic critic explores the fascinating intersections between the Kardashian sisters’ novel “Dollhouse” and Ibsen’s play “A Doll House.” The more things change …
Read MoreThe essential task of the critic is not to like or dislike the arts or to push bromides, such as to celebrate the “power of reading.” Despite some troublesome modifications, Lionel Trilling carries on the mission of E.A. Poe and Henry James: he articulates the value of the serious act of judgment in a culture hostile to it.
Read MoreAs the year nears its end, time is running out to write at length about some of the new books that gave me pleasure. Thus this quick list of favorites. As usual, my taste runs to prose that’s off-the-beaten-path.
Read MoreThere is no way that The Arts Fuse was going to miss celebrating the 100th birthday of one of the greatest satirists of the 20th century — Irish genius Flann O’Brien.
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