As cultural critique, Curtis White’s Transcendent comes across as a modest if chilly yip of Zen resignation.
Books
Book Review: Andrea Barrett’s Magical “Natural History”
Although science is Andrea Barrett’s springboard, she is writing fiction about the people who do scientific research and teach it: memorable people who have hearts and secrets and feelings and hopes and dreams and goals.
Book Reviews: Black Activism in a Quartet of Children’s Books
Given the increasing backlash against books that promote equity and diversity, and the fact that many schools still spotlight Black history in February, here is a sampling of the many excellent Black history and biography books for children published in the past few years.
Book Review: “The World and All That It Holds” — A Remarkable Achievement
Aleksandar Hemon’s latest novel is simply dizzying, filled with texture, startling imagery, language in multiple tongues (keep Google within reach!), and it succeeds in most every respect.
Book Review: Love, Death, the Beatles, and James Bond — Britain, for Better or Worse
There’s no question the Beatles come out of John Higgs’ superb book Love and Let Die looking far better than James Bond. Love tends to play better than death and it’s easier to root for working class underdogs than Establishment snobs.
Book Review: Film Director Preston Sturges — The Reluctant Auteur
This incisive, compelling, and spirited analysis of the screwball maestro’s life and oeuvre illuminates the art of an overlooked genius.
Book Review: “The Constitution in Jeopardy” Wrong Diagnosis and Solution
This is the Catch-22 of American constitutional politics. We the people are free to propose any structural reform we want except that they’ll all suffer the same fate: strangulation at the hands of petty politicians in Washington or the state capitals.
Book Review: Two Powerful Books from Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa — A Liberal Citizen of the World
Engagingly written by a limpid stylist, The Call of the Tribe marshals a corps of sparkling intellectuals who have in common first-hand experience of dictatorship, a commitment to individual freedom, a belief in reasonably regulated free-market economies, and a rejection of the political zealotry of religion or the doctrinaire left and right.
Poetry Review: Hannah Sullivan’s “Was It For This” — The Harsh Reality of Our Transience
The structure, plot, themes, tone, and diction of Was It For This all combine to consecrate the ordinary alongside the exceptional.
Book Review: “Leon Battista Alberti: The Chameleon’s Eye” — Not Your Classic Renaissance Man
This splendid biography of Leon Battista Alberti, beautifully produced, with a rich selection of well-placed and well-reproduced illustrations, vividly portrays one of the most complex and fascinating figures in a complex and fascinating time, one whose preoccupations are entirely relevant today.