Books
Well-crafted fiction about the politics and psychosis of the sixties is becoming a growing industry. The Last of Her Kind, by Sigrid Nunez (Farrar Straus and Giroux); “Eat the Document: A Novel” by Dana Spiotta (Scribner) By Harvey Blume The legacy of the sixties keeps coming at us. By now, even President Bush might have…
Read More“Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity” by Hal Niedzviecki. (City Lights) By Adrienne LaFrance A word to the mohawked and tattooed, to those who reject cell phones and popular music. Yes, you, the self-proclaimed non-conformists: You’re not special. Or maybe more aptly, you’re just as unique as the droves of people trying…
Read MoreTwo excellent books, one by Boston rocker Jen Trynin, plumb the insides of the worlds of jazz and rock ‘n’ roll.
Read MoreThe indispensable octogenarian, Doris Lessing, continues to astonish with her latest books. “Time Bites: Views and Reviews” (HarperCollins) and “The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, and Griot and the Snow Dog” (HarperCollins) by Doris Lessing. By Harvey Blume When I interviewed Doris Lessing several years ago apropos “Walking in the Shade: 1949-1962,” the…
Read MoreBy Liza Weisstuch An illuminating new book suggests that, post-Holocaust, the question is no longer whether Jews should live in Germany but how they should live there. Being Jewish in the New Germany by Jeffrey Peck. (Rutgers University Press) Read an excerpt from “Being Jewish in the New Germany.” Last year marked the 60-year anniversary…
Read MoreMary Gaitskill’s fine novel “Veronica” explores the links between beauty and ugliness.
Read MoreA brilliant new novel explores how the search for his family’s fate during the Holocaust nearly costs a man his sanity. “Götz and Meyer” by David Albahari. Translated from the Serbian by Ellan Elias-Bursac. (Harcourt, 176 pp., $23) By Tess Lewis “We need so little to imagine another world, don’t we?” asks the narrator of…
Read MoreTwo books by left-wing pundits grapple with why they supported the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq. “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq” by George Packer. (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux) “Power and the Idealists: Or, The Passion of Joschka Fischer and its Aftermath” by Paul Berman. (Soft Skull Press) By Harvey Blume The inescapable question for…
Read MoreA groundbreaking book explores the music written for Hollywood’s animated cartoons and how the tunes shaped the characters and stories that are now a vital part of American culture. Read More
First published fifty years ago, this novel offers a more devastating picture of the physical and psychological toll of ground warfare as any an embedded journalist could offer.
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Arts Commentary: From the Editor’s Desk — By Popular Demand, 2026