Literary Prozac
Matthew Gasda’s new novel unfolds in a haze of empty dialogue and overwrought introspection.
Brad Strotten
· 7 min read
Review
A collection of 132 posts
Heterodox Radical
A new collection of Murray Kempton’s articles reveals a thoughtful journalist whose politics were difficult to categorise.
Ron Capshaw
· 8 min read
A Bridge Too Far
Biden’s re-election campaign was a grand exercise in hubris, which led to the very outcome it was intended to prevent.
Joshua Muravchik
· 14 min read
A Minority of One
A valuable new collection of wartime letters written by Leslie Fiedler shows how politically astute the budding literary critic was about communism.
Ron Capshaw
· 7 min read
Religious Reasoning
The first and largest mistake Douthat makes in his new book is to argue that faith and rationality are mutually supportive.
Graham Daseler
· 15 min read
Know Thine Enemy
An insider’s naive and myopic account of China’s system and intentions.
Brian Stewart
· 8 min read
Good Intentions, Bad Outcomes
Those who ignore politically inconvenient information about affirmative action are more interested in defending a narrative than in actually solving a problem.
Erec Smith
· 9 min read
Epic Failure
Many of the people involved in Uberto Pasolini’s new screen adaptation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ are intimidatingly talented. It’s a pity, then, that the film is such a disaster.
Jaspreet Singh Boparai
· 14 min read
Victims of Realism
Alexander Vindman’s bracing new book argues that Ukraine has been made to suffer the consequences of Western naivety and restraint.
Brian Stewart
· 6 min read
Picture Perfect
Vincenzo Latronico’s prismatic novel ‘Perfection’ is a lament for the hopes and dreams of a generation reconfigured by the internet.
Andrew White
· 9 min read
Red Spies and Lies
Clay Risen’s new book about the American “Red Scare” emphasises the injustices of anti-communism but minimises the true extent and danger of communist infiltration.
Ronald Radosh
· 23 min read
A Violent History Obscured
South Korean Nobel laureate Han Kang’s literary experimentation thwarts rather than advances her professed concern for the suffering of everyone, everywhere, all the time.
Brad Strotten
· 7 min read
A Kinder, Gentler Eliminationism
Peter Beinart has responded to the 7 October massacre and subsequent Gaza war with a deeply duplicitous book.
Susie Linfield
· 18 min read
Mammy Dearest
Richard Bernstein’s new book about Al Jolson and ‘The Jazz Singer’ offers a thoughtful reconsideration of an unfairly reviled cultural landmark.
Graham Daseler
· 14 min read
Tyranny Is Not What It Used to Be
In her new book, ‘Autocracy, Inc.,’ historian Anne Applebaum provides us with a distinctive and indispensable guide to one of the great challenges of our time.
Brian Stewart
· 8 min read