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
Review
A collection of 134 posts
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
Oversimplify and Vilify
‘The Message’ is a lopsided, unserious, and frequently embarrassing essay, the real target of which is the very existence of Israel.
Mark Horowitz
· 12 min read
The Eerie Beauty of ‘Flow’
Gints Zilbalodis’s beautiful dystopian story feels like the start of a new era in cinema, or at least the invitation to one.
Roy Wayne Meredith III
· 5 min read
Sonny Side Up
Al Pacino’s personal life has been a bit of a train wreck, but his new memoir leaves no doubt that acting has been the most important thing in his life.
Kevin Mims
· 21 min read
Reading Nietzsche in Amsterdam
Lale Gül’s autobiographical novel about a young Muslim woman living in the Netherlands has led to death threats and ostracism. But it is a work of admirable intelligence and courage.
Brad Strotten
· 7 min read
A Half-Serious Man
Boris Johnson got a couple of critical things right, but he never could or would have become a good prime minister.
John Lloyd
· 12 min read
Populists Before Trump
John Ganz’s lively new book provides a valuable account of the intellectual origins of Trumpism.
Leon Hadar
· 9 min read
New York Narcissism
Nikkitha Bakshani’s debut novel ‘Ghost Chilli’ is an ideologically confused work that seems to endorse the racial essentialism it purports to satirise.
Brad Strotten
· 5 min read
Totems and Taboos
A cancelled academic has produced a fine new book about the threat posed by progressive pieties.
John Lloyd
· 9 min read
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Richard Morton Jack’s comprehensive new biography of Nick Drake offers a glimpse of a brilliant but troubled soul.
Matt Hanson
· 10 min read
Sin and Social Science
Glenn Loury’s startlingly frank confessional memoir offers a complex portrait of a brilliant scholar and a profoundly flawed man.
John Lloyd
· 14 min read
Unbowed but Gravely Wounded
Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, ‘Knife,’ describes the assassination attempt its author survived and offers a moving contemplation of mortality.
Paul Berman
· 15 min read
What We’re Reading in May
Discover new reads hand-picked by our editors.
Quillette
· 6 min read
Misadventures of a Stalinist Stooge
Benn Steil’s engrossing new biography of Henry A. Wallace is a timely cautionary tale and a masterpiece of 20th-century American history.
Ronald Radosh
· 23 min read