Books
Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel explores a future that’s already happened. “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. (Knopf) By Liza Weisstuch In the popular imagination, science fiction novels are supposed to be set in the future, anywhere from two years ahead to centuries. Often, these stories ruminate on how the latest technology changes humanity and…
Albanian writer reflects on winning the inaugural Man Booker International Prize for Fiction.
A new novel by a Chinese dissident provides a comically stinging vision of his homeland.
A new book gives a philosophical analysis of American culture’s obsession with nonsense.
A novel by a Nobel prize-winner from Iceland presents a journey into the center of a resolutely antic imagination.
In this moving memoir, the daughter of celebrated psychologist Erik Erikson meditates on how fame and ego shatter the foundations of family life. “In the Shadow of Fame: A Memoir by the Daughter of Erik H. Erikson” by Sue Erikson Bloland. (Viking) By Debbie Porter Sometimes, the lives of the famous resemble fairy tales: an…
By Tess Lewis A new novel captures the atmosphere of post-1956 Hungary from a child’s point of view. The Swimmer by Zsuzsa Bank. Translated from the German by Margot Bettauer Dembo. (Harcourt Books) In tales of exile, the stories of those left behind are rarely told. This is hardly surprising because the abandoned, when they…
Sci-fi master Samuel Delany’s latest novel is a mystery set in the ancient world. Phallos, by Samuel R. Delany. (Bamberger Books) By Vincent Czyz Samuel R. Delany is best known as “l’enfant terrible” who published his first novel at age 20 and then went on to win science fiction’s most prestigious awards — the Nebula…
By David Stenhouse Stephen Greenblatt’s acclaimed biography of Shakespeare is filled with fascinating speculations. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt (Norton) King Lear’s coaxing plea to Cordelia that “nothing can come of nothing” has always offered a stark challenge for biographers of William Shakespeare. On the page or on the…
Visual Arts Review: Cartoon Memoirist
By Milo Miles Iranian expatriate Marjane Satrapi continues to expand the art of the comic book. Back in the ’40s, the long-standing prejudice that comic books were incapable of presenting serious, adult matters was exploded by such artists as Bernie Krigstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and Will Eisner. But the discovery of how just how uniquely valuable…
Read More about Visual Arts Review: Cartoon Memoirist