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In my formative years, my perception of diamonds, engagements, and proposals was shaped largely by my favorite films from Hollywood’s... Read More

The first problem with the New York Times Magazine’s new list (“The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters”) is that... Read More

It was only after Vigdis Hjorth’s father died that family estrangement became the central subject of her fiction. Prior to that, she... Read More

I first learned about Zoe B. Wallbrook’s debut novel, History Lessons, from a promotional email a few weeks after it came out. Its... Read More

On September 30, 1984, Beijing Municipality opened to the public its first modern subway track, Line 2. For about US$0.035, Beijingers could... Read More

Roughly three decades ago, it would have taken only a quick drive through the heart of Atlanta to see how much Ted Turner had made the city... Read More

I have always had a problem with the “extremism industry,” and I could never quite place what it was. It isn’t that... Read More

Lena Dunham released her second book, “Famesick,” last month. It’s a memoir chronicling the slightly more than a decade... Read More

Among the more curious features of my job as a critic who writes regularly about the motion picture industry is explaining to various... Read More

“It was just as nice as I hoped and dreamed it would be,” sobs a young bride in the final line of Joan Didion’s piece... Read More

We don’t make Keats anymore in the same way that we don’t make Technicolor movies. No one does the chemistry anymore, it’s... Read More

EACH NEW TRANSLATION of a work from a major author should spark a reevaluation of that author’s critical reception and public... Read More

An irritating thing about reviewing books translated from languages you think you know is getting past the title. Did the translator get it... Read More

David Copperfield nearly killed me. For the last several years I’ve given myself a goal of reading a certain number of classics... Read More

This is not a metaphor. I placed my key in the lock and tried to turn it to unlock the back door to my Midwestern home. Instead, the key got... Read More

Last week, in the decision for Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court narrowed the reach of the Voting Rights Act so that it no longer... Read More

If the first few months of 2026 are any indication, this is going to be an exceptionally strong year for jazz, improvised, and related music.... Read More

I landed at JFK in late December, 1984. I had graduated from New York University just seven months before, but the city felt different. The... Read More

Grok, is this true? This question is asked thousands of times a day on Twitter as users fact-check, question, and prod various claims made on... Read More

Unless you were hiding out in a bunker in the middle of the desert from 2008 to 2013, you know that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul had... Read More

If you’re an avid listener of the Bill Simmons podcast1, you might have heard a recent bit he did with Zach Lowe, where they... Read More

What’s the one thing that every pundit and certified member of the Fourth Estate knows? Why, it’s that MAGA is... Read More

George Orwell’s timeless classic Animal Farm, a “fairy story” aimed at young readers, has sold some 11 million copies... Read More

Harold Bloom, the greatest literary critic of his age! Look on his works, ye Mighty, and despair: by the end of his long, super-contemplative... Read More

Of course I knew that Charles Dickens had what was arguably the most brutal and public marital separation in literary history. I can’t... Read More

"You told me if I loved literature, I shouldn’t go to grad school,” wrote a former student. The biochemistry-turned-English... Read More

If the woman in monogrammed Chanel acid-wash jeans standing on the Regal Times Square escalator had stayed to the right to let me walk past,... Read More

Can faith-aligned investors become known for what they are for in addition to what they are against? That was the question posed by Martin... Read More

Gojjam wipes a streak of vomit from the corner of his mouth and turns to his friend Zeleke. ‘I did your turn at the front today,’... Read More

Late last month, American booksellers hit a major milestone. Across the United States, 2,000 bookshops celebrated Independent Bookstore... Read More

Every eight months, someone publishes an essay announcing the rediscovery of Stoner. By now, John Williams’s 1965 novel about an... Read More

I’m an idiot who took French in high school, despite living in San Diego. I don’t recall much from the classes, but remember I... Read More

David Brooks recently described the skeptical attitude toward romantic relationships, particularly among younger Americans, as “the... Read More

Michael, the new biopic of “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, has gotten scathing reviews, which it deserves. Nevertheless,... Read More

One of the beneficiaries of Virginia’s aggressive attempt to gerrymander the state for Democratic advantage could be a former federal... Read More

It’s an amusing line in a bad movie: “We’re just following, we’re just following,” chant several sheep as they... Read More

Former Ambassador Alberto Fernandez from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI.org) discusses the cornucopia of Islamist content... Read More

WHAT DOES DIOGENES of Sinope have in common with Alexei Navalny and the unnamed man who stood before a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square... Read More