Bestseller Reparations In ‘American Fiction,’ director Cord Jefferson brings a devil-may-care effrontery to bear on the culture of self-censorship, progressive pieties, and artistic hypocrisy. Thomas Larson 24 Jan 2024 · 7 min read
Huck Finn or Uncle Tom? These great books should be read together, for each illuminates a different part of the American character. Tim DeRoche 13 Jan 2024 · 8 min read
A Dense Thicket of Contending Visions In his latest novel, Tom Piazza imagines the finest meeting of American minds never to have happened. Matt Hanson 7 Jan 2024 · 6 min read
In Memoriam, 2023 A tribute to three pop-fiction authors who passed away this year. Kevin Mims 19 Dec 2023 · 14 min read
Mutual Friends: The Adventures of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins A charming exhibition at London’s Charles Dickens Museum provides a fascinating glimpse into the private lives of two great English writers. Hannah Gal 11 Dec 2023 · 7 min read
The Greatest American Western Novel of All Elmer Kelton’s ‘The Time It Never Rained’ is an overlooked classic. Kevin Mims 23 Nov 2023 · 13 min read
Man Out of Time A look back at the career of Avery Corman, who found popular success with ‘Kramer versus Kramer’ before running afoul of feminism. Kevin Mims 6 Oct 2023 · 19 min read
The Communication Revolution Like the first iPhone, Gutenberg’s Bible opened up avenues of development that entrepreneurs have been exploiting ever since. James Hannam 27 Sep 2023 · 10 min read
Remembering ‘Exodus’ A perennially controversial bestseller turns 65. Kevin Mims 4 Sep 2023 · 18 min read
On Marriage and Happiness It is easy for a successful writer to advise that career success isn’t that important. Would a failed writer agree? Kevin Mims 26 Aug 2023 · 9 min read
Milan Kundera: The Nobel Prize for Literature Winner We Never Had Few writers in our time were more committed to the novel or had more idealism about the heights the form could scale. Robin Ashenden 11 Jul 2023 · 12 min read
The Sorrow and the Self-Pity Michel Houellebecq’s new memoir reveals a man quick to find fault with others but slow to accept responsibility for his woes. RJ Smith 26 Jun 2023 · 8 min read
‘The Princess Bride’ at 50 A look back at William Goldman’s bonkers metafictional novel ‘The Princess Bride,’ which later became a much-loved family film. Kevin Mims 19 Jun 2023 · 18 min read
Roald Dahl’s Forgotten Novel, 75 Years On Before finding fame as a children’s author, Dahl penned the first novel on nuclear war to be published after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Christian Kriticos 12 Jun 2023 · 14 min read
The Sardonic Inferno At its best, Amis’s fiction broke open the locked door behind which our culture tries to keep its skeletons hidden. Matt Hanson 2 Jun 2023 · 7 min read