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essays

Book Review: “Impossible Owls” — Beauty on the Margins

Brian Phillips uses the essay form to map the limits of America’s cultural-historical imagination, from our highest achievements to our kitschiest expressions of who we think we are, and who we think everyone else is.

By: Lucas Spiro Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review Tagged: Brian Phillips, essays, FSG Original, Impossible Owls, Lucas Spiro, non-fiction, travel writing

Book Review: Catch “Culture Fever”

Being able to comfortably shift gears between “high” and “low” culture is one of the easiest ways in which a contemporary critic can gain the reader’s trust.

By: Matt Hanson Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review Tagged: Culture Fever, essays, Matt Hanson, Orchises Press, Stephen Akey

Book Review: Mark Greif’s “Against Everything” — But For Nothing?

Mark Greif’s analyses can be sharply counter-intuitive..

By: Arts Fuse Editor Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review Tagged: Against Everything, essays, Mark Greif, Matt Hanson, Penguin Random House

Book Review: Christopher Hitchens — Final Stings From the Gadfly

These pieces could have been written yesterday, which speaks volumes about the eternal recurrence of the moronic inferno of the political.

By: Arts Fuse Editor Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review Tagged: And Yet ..., Christopher-Hitchens, criticism, essays, Matt Hanson

Book Review: Charles D’Ambrosio’s “Loitering” — Slam-Bang Ghost Stories

Charies D’Ambrosio’s short fiction collections were finalists for major awards, but it is his essays that I return to again and again.

By: Ted Kehoe Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review Tagged: 9/11, Charles D'Ambrosio, essays, Holden Caulfield, journalism, Loitering: New & Collected Essays, Mary Kay Letorneau, Ted Kehoe, Tin House

Fuse Book Interview: “For the Republic” — An Independent View

George Scialabba is still outfoxing the professional eggheads in For the Republic, his third collection of essays on political and cultural topics.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Interview Tagged: essays, For The Republic, George Scialabba, Reviews, The Modern Predicament, What Are Intellectuals Good For?

Book Review: “The Lair” — The Intoxicating Trauma of Exile

Norman Manea’s compelling novel “The Lair” tracks the ambiguities, contradictions, and confusions of the exile’s psyche as he struggles to find footing in surroundings that are often unintelligible. It is a highly cerebral, labyrinthine book, filled with mystery, paranoia, and illegible codes.

By: Tess Lewis Filed Under: Books, Featured, World Books Tagged: essays, fiction-in-translation, Norman-Manea, Romanian, The Fifth Impossibility, The Lair

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