OLM Favorites: The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit
/William S. Burroughs's notorious Cut-up Trilogy was his fiercest broadside against what he felt was the tyranny of linear thought. Steve Danziger delves into their Word Hoard.
Read MoreWaiting for the Dough
/Near the end of his life, Orson Welles tape-recorded his lunches with a faithful industry friend. By turns hilarious and self-pitying, they give a brilliant glimpse of the aging titan.
Read MoreRabbit Trails into History: An interview with translator Christiana Hills
/Steve Danziger talks with Christina Hills, a "cruciverbalist" translator from the controversial Oulipo school.
Read MorePost Re-Bop
/James Ellroy begins a second L.A. Quartet with his new novel Perfidia. But does it harness the demonic madness and stylistic panache of the author's earlier works of historical crime fiction?
Read MoreTitle Menu: 12 Hot Summer Reads
/It's summer at last, and you won't find any relief from the heat in our editors' round-up of the hottest books they know.
Read MoreIt Wasn't Palimpsestuous
/The collectors of rare 78 rpm records are nearly as singular and remarkable as the vinyl they seek out. A new book travels to flea markets and music fairs to discover the secrets of these American obsessives.
Read MoreLeft Wanting
/Elia Kazan's unwavering confidence in his own brilliance was the spur to his successes as a director and the source of his infamy as a Cold War canary. A new collection of his letters makes his outsized personality seem even larger.
Read MoreThe Impossible Affliction
/Having tried therapy and medication to treat his anxiety disorder, Scott Stossel turned to writing. His new book, part memoir, part cultural history, may be an essential document of our agitated age.
Read MoreSummer Reading 2013
/In our annual feature, the Open Letters team offers suggestions for summer reading that take you off the beaten path of blockbusters and beach novels.
Read MoreSummer Reading 2013 continues
/In part two of our seasonal feature the Open Letters staff recommends another trove of unconventional books – and a few old favorites, too.
Read MoreRazing Hell
/In a new memoir packed with garbled madness, we get a funhouse-mirror autobiography of the legendary Richard Hell, who did more than anybody to invent punk rock and only haphazardly survived to tell the tale
Read MoreSleazy Inner Tubes
/Artist Laura Carton does not surf pornography for the usual reasons, By digitally removing the 'actors' from their backgrounds, she creates strangely suggestive landscapes. In this interview she addresses both her process and her plan.
Read MoreMay 2013 Issue
/"www.deepintrusion.com, 2004" by Laura Cartonfrom Stripped, 2010
Read MoreApproaching Auschwitz
/An incurious and indifferent Jew journeys to Auschwitz to confront the kitsch and the manicured ruins, looking for a sense of connection - and finding it in the most unlikely places
Read MoreExit the Dragons
/Yes, we know Sam Lipsyte's stories are laugh-out-loud funny. But all that low comedy--the pratfalls, the dirty jokes--serves as the ballast for some of the darkest stories in contemporary fiction. Steve Danziger elaborates.
Read MoreJudaize This
/The belief that Jews are the enemy of civilization is one of the West's most tenacious and systemic ideas. Professor David Nirenberg's new history offers a vast, seemingly inexhaustible record of a very old, very useful hatred.
Read MoreThe Ghosts of Monmouth County
/Bossophilia: The idolization of Bruce Springsteen that comes from midlife nostalgia and a fear of dying. Steve Danziger confronts the phenomenon, and a new biography.
Read MoreDignity, Conviction, and Mrs. Stollman’s Checkbook
/ESP-Disk', the cult record label from Bernard Stollman, was known for two things: extraordinary, eclectic recordings and horrendous business practices. A new oral history sheds light on the glorious mess.
Read MoreA Certain Kind of Loneliness: Thoughts on Bri Hurley’s Making a Scene
/"I was seething with unchanneled anger, frustration, and a maddening inability to express myself. In other words, I was perfect for hardcore." Steve Danziger on a misspent youth at CBGB.
Read MoreThe Dangers of Failing to Lesnerize
/Dubbed the Voltaire of science fiction, Robert Sheckley often denied that there was anything serious in his fabulations. But a new collection belies the claim, displaying inventive satire mixed with wisdom
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