The Parties Were Hell
/Diana Trilling worked in her eminent husband’s shadow; a new biography hints at the toll that took and brings her accomplishments into the light.
Read MoreEchoes of Narcissus
/A strikingly original new book explores what happens when our need to understand our experiences exceeds the stories we can tell about them.
Read MoreKindling the Mob
/A new biography tells the fascinating story of anarchist poet Lola Ridge, long overlooked by a critical culture that considered politics antithetical to literature. Laura Tanenbaum reviews.
Read MoreKafka with a Happy Ending
/As we should expect from someone whose previous work is both experimental and kinky, Miranda July has written a first novel that refuses to play by the rules.
Read MoreA Walker in the City
/In the world of Julie Hayden's stories, the contingency of all experience, let alone of literary creation and reputation, is inescapable.
Read MoreThe Personal Was Always the Political
/Vivian Gornick's biography of Emma Goldman focuses more on the famous anarchist's love life than her political ideologies--but might those tumultuous relationships offer new insights into her beliefs?
Read MoreWhen the Sewing Needles Dropped
/Anne Roiphe was raised in privilege, educated at Smith, and joined in marriage to a successful playwright; her new memoir reveals how painfully constricting that life came to be.
Read MoreLooking at Betty Draper
/Mad Men's Betty Draper is spoiled and uppity, but also tragically thwarted by the chauvinism of the era. As Season Four begins, her fate on the show is coming to a head.
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 MoreBook Review: Commencement
/J. Courtney Sullivan’s novel Commencement has been compared to fellow Seven Sister Mary McCarthy’s The Group. Laura Tanenbaum assesses how Sullivan fills some mighty big shoes.
Read MoreAll the Sad Old Men
/In Vivian Gornick’s The Men in My Life, a committed feminist writes a collection of essays about literary men; Laura Tanenbaum monitors these latest dispatches from the gender conflict.
Read MoreScolds in the Agora
/For those too addled by Xbox to grasp subtlety, Mark Bauerlein and Richard Shenkman have titled their respective books The Dumbest Generation and Just How Stupid Are We? For the rest of us, Laura Tanenbaum provides a nuanced evaluation of the laments of these cultural Jeremiahs.
Read MoreLife Is Our Cause
/Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon sonically reshaped a generation, and Sheila Weller has talked to almost everyone who saw them do it. Laura Tanenbaum, reviewing Girls Like Us, assesses the job Weller does in letting these women roar.
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