Artifice and Discipline
/The personas and poetics of five new books by American women are examined in with an eye toward concealment and of revelation: Matthea Harvey, Katy Lederer, Brenda Shaugnessey, Robyn Schiff, and Karen Volkman.
Read MoreThe Man of Steel Revealed?
/The most famous fictional creation this side of Tarzan has undergone innumerable changes over the years, and author Tom DeHaven tries to chart them all in his new book on the Man of Steel.
Read MoreThrough the Keyhole
/Mikhail Chekhov's Anton Chekhov: A Brother's Memoir has at last been published in English in its entirety, and its flaws and omissions make it almost as revealing as one of Anton's own stories.
Read MoreA Year with Short Novels: "There is a bridge...."
/The jewel-like perfection of Thornton Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is the subject of Ingrid Norton's scrutiny in this latest installment of "The Year of Short Novels"
Read MoreIt's a Mystery: "A violin is always female"
/There is not a false note in Paganini’s Ghost, Paul Adam’s superbly calibrated mystery that unfolds around the intrigue generated by a priceless instrument and its keepers.
Read MoreDeLillo and the Three Ps
/The nation's book critics naturally congregated when Don DeLillo's slim new book appeared. In the latest Open Letters Peer Review, John Rodwan supplies a scorecard for the players.
Read MoreLike Dust, and Memories
/In mythology, Alcestis is the model wife, willing to give up her own life for her husband's. In Katharine Beutner's lyrical retelling, the truth is more complex.
Read MoreSoothing the Elites
/Louis Menand has offered a calm and lucid response to the usual jeremiads about higher education--but is its lecture targeted to an ever-shrinking audience?
Read MoreIn Shafer's Shadow
/"My ideal poem would be able to be interpreted as both funny and sad and whatever else….” Shafer trailed off. “I think that’s a fairly accurate description of my work, and probably of myself too.”
Read More'You Talk Too Much...'
/Unlike its predecessor, Mass Effect 2 makes being a jerk a rewarding experience--Phillip A. Lobo explores the paradoxes of the Enlightenment, and the complicated morality of being bad.
Read MoreHis Homelands
/He was a soldier, a lover, an exile, and a wanderer - he was Ugo Foscolo,and thanks to a new translation, readers will learn he was one thing more: a powerful poet.
Read MoreTwilight of the Giants
/The elephants of South Africa and the right whales of the North Atlantic are enormous, complex - and confronted with a growing human population. Two books estimate their chances.
Read MoreFools in Love
/Like an overheated love letter, André Aciman's florid novel novel of obsession, Eight White Nights, is very easy to mock--but is it perhaps just as candid and emotionally powerful? Sam Sacks tests it against the truth of experience.
Read MoreIt’s Not All Gossip and Fangs
/The latest novels by Francisco X. Stork and Benjamin Alire Saenz remind us that there's much, much more to teen fiction than vampire fads.
Read MoreFacebook Fiction
/Justin Taylor's Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever raises the age-old question about 'hot' new collections: can they possibly live up to their own billing? Janet Potter turns in a verdict.
Read MoreSunday in the Park with Dramaturgical Heueristics
/Giambattista Tiepolo spent a lifetime fulfilling contracts and covering walls with glowing celebrations of light and life. In Tiepolo Pink, Roberto Calasso delves into those bright works.
Read MoreMarch 2010 Issue
/"snoverkill" by Jeffrey Eaton
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