The Disgraceful Lowlands of Writing
/Reiner Stach's masterful, epic biography of Kafka is finally complete. Never has the man been less mysterious, but can it illuminate the confounding, beguiling mystery of his writing?
Read MorePassion Rules the World
/Boris Dralyuk's new translation of Isaac Babel's Odessa Tales brings its Jewish gangsters back to more vibrant life than ever. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MoreAbsent Friends: An Intellectual All The Time
/An old book by a monk may be the best thing ever written about the practice of thinking. Robert Minto revisits The Intellectual Life.
Read MoreLight Puppets
/In Moonstone, Icelandic author Sjón tells a story of 1918 Iceland through the longings and alienation of a sixteen-year-old orphan named Mani. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MorePatricide Deferred
/Stuart Jeffries has written the first truly accessible account of the Frankfurt School. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MoreSocrates of Amazonia
/What exactly is a philosopher? As it turns out, that question may have more than one answer. Robert Minto shares the exciting results of Justin Smith's new history.
Read MoreSecond Glance: The Secret of Prometheus
/The oldest texts can seem familiar, but they repay attention with strangeness. Robert Minto delves into the religious origins and unresolved mysteries of Prometheus Bound.
Read MoreA Question of Character
/In an entertaining new study of Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir and company, the existentialist movement becomes a personality-driven piece of public performance.
Read MoreAnother Way To See
/John Berger's writing on art often feels more dramatic than analytic, a passionate study of the unspoken transaction between artist and viewer. Robert Minto looks at Portraits.
Read MoreSlaves in the Empire of Intellect
/Before he was a famous and controversial philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche was a young professor with a bone to pick. Robert Minto discusses his critique of higher education.
Read MoreBook Review: Latest Readings
/Ailing cultural critic Clive James turns in what may very well be his final collection of essays. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MoreBook Review: Moral Agents
/A collection of profiles of eight pivotal American literary men of the 20th century - Robert Minto reviews
Read MoreBook Review: The Poetry of John Milton
/A sumptuous new book studies the work of one of the English language's greatest poets. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MorePeer Review: Front Row Seats
/Biographer Zachary Leader takes his readers on a long, detailed tour of the first half of Saul Bellow's life, and while those readers may be loving it, the critics have been complaining!
Read MoreClassics Reissued: A Legacy
/Sybille Bedford's great novel - now in a pretty reprint from the New York Review of Books - has the sweep of Edward Gibbon and the emotional vitality of Jane Austen. Robert Minto takes a new look at a classic.
Read MoreBook Review: The World Beyond Your Head
/The "ecologies of attention and action" form the dynamic heart of philosopher Matthew Crawford's new book. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MoreFather Knows Best
/He shaped the morals and manners of a vast country and put an indelible stamp on the world's thinking, but he himself couldn't get the job he wanted. Robert Minto reviews a new history of Confucianism.
Read MoreBook Review: Goethe
/A short new biography seeks to do the impossible: encompass the Protean life of Goethe in only a handful of pages. Robert Minto reviews.
Read MoreThe Schizophrenic Prophet
/A sumptuous new Library of America volume contains a rich sampling of the work of Reinhold Niebuhr - whom reviewer Robert Minto refers to as "the premiere establishment theologian of the 20th century."
Read MoreBook Review: Lucky Alan and Other Stories
/Jonathan Lethem's latest book continues his project of combining the literary and the pulpy - Robert Minto reviews.
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