Review

Film Review: “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue” — Existing as a Writer in China Today

May 18, 2021
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For those with sufficient patience and imagination — and are eager to learn more about the Chinese literary scene than what’s found in journalistic headlines — Jia Zhangke’s documentary will be an uncommon treat.

Book Review: “The Science of Abolition” — See No Evil

May 18, 2021
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Oh yes, they thought that to treat human beings like livestock was backward and doomed and obsolete and unscientific and fatally inefficient, but if any of them thought it was indefensibly cruel and morally intolerable, they show no awareness by the evidence of this book.

Jazz Performance Review: Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner at Home

May 17, 2021
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To hear this performance properly. you must do a bit more work than you might do ordinarily . . . but great art deserves such work.

Book Review: “The Life of the Mind” — A Spot-on Portrait of the Postmodern Blues

May 17, 2021
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Christine Smallwood’s courage in looking at the way things are — for many of us — makes this novel about the pervasiveness of angst a subtle, empathetic accomplishment.

Book Review: “Robert E. Lee and Me” — An Incomplete Reckoning

May 16, 2021
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This is a noble effort to reconcile with the Southern past — but are suggested changes in nomenclature — rather than statements of moral and political clarity — good enough?

Classical Album Review: Danish String Quartet’s “Prism III” — Exceedingly Fine, Probing, and Exciting

May 16, 2021
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This disc stands comfortably in the company of Beethoven and Bartók performances by the Emerson, Tákacs, Alban Berg, and Juilliard Quartets.

Film Review: “The Killing of Two Lovers” — Lives of Quiet Desperation

May 14, 2021
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We are subtly drawn into the world of director Robert Machoian’s characters and their emotional honesty.

Film Review: “Spiral” — One More Spin of the “Saw”

May 14, 2021
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Spiral is content to be a satisfying thriller that mechanically delivers as its murderous pace picks up.

Book Review: “Shooting Midnight Cowboy” — A Very Good Read

May 14, 2021
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What motivated me to read this book? Not for a special love of Midnight Cowboy, a movie which I like but isn’t ultimately important to me. It was to learn about James Leo Herlihy, who has interested me since I was an adolescent.

Book Review: “Roundabout of Death” — No Safe Havens

May 13, 2021
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The strength of Roundabout of Death lies in its credibility, and in a specificity that defies detail.

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