A welcome, fresh translation of an overlooked classic, a superb novel of (bad) manners. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Month: July 2024
Does America Still Care About Authors?
Once upon a time, writers were celebrities; now, the role of the public intellectual has gone up in smoke. For one novelist, a glamorous trip to France showed what literary life back home could be like. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
The Sports Novel is Enjoying a Renaissance
In the beginning, it was just for boys. Originating in the late nineteenth century as a popular, morally instructive piece of entertainment for preteen males, the sports novel has had a long, slow climb to respectability. Ever since it began to encroach on more elevated terrain in the middle of the twentieth century, the genre has maintained an uneasy relationship with the higher claims of literature. With its cast of larger-than-life characters, its central place in the lives of so many fans, and its mirroring of the world beyond the field, the sports universe is a rich site of inquiry for the receptive novelist. Yet the novel of athletics has only sporadically taken advantage of these possibilities. Now a wide range of writers have picked up the thread again, employing a dizzying array of stylistic and thematic approaches that have gone a long way toward refreshing the genre. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
50 Years Ago, ‘Jaws’ Hit Bookstores, Capturing the Angst of a Generation
The novel became the beach read of the summer, with the shark at its center embodying the unease of an era of political and social upheaval. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Why More Americans Can’t Afford to Stop Working
Retirement is increasingly becoming a luxury many American workers cannot afford. With rising housing costs and medical expenses and without the pensions that buoyed previous generations, millions of older Americans can’t stop working. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Read Your Way Through Prague
Prague has survived wars and political strife — and through it all, its literary scene has thrived. Jaroslav Kalfar, the author of “Spaceman of Bohemia,” recommends books that connect readers to the city. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Miniseries Based on ‘Lady in the Lake’ by Laura Lippman Coming Soon
When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) is a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, and Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) is a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. Their disparate lives seem parallel at first, but when Maddie becomes fixated on Cleo’s mystifying death, a chasm opens that puts everyone around them in danger. From visionary director Alma Har’el, “Lady in the Lake” emerges as a feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale of the price women pay for their dreams. Watch trailer
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
‘The Heart in Winter’ by Kevin Barry
“The Heart in Winter” sees Barry once again attempting something new — and pulling it off with aplomb. His first novel to be set in America is both an Irish-flavored western fraught with danger and brutality and a love story filled with caustic humor and pathos. It wears its influences well — the raw flintiness of Cormac McCarthy, the dizzying exuberance of Flann O’Brien, the taut storytelling of Charles Portis — but Barry’s signature touches predominate and render the narrative propulsive and immersive. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
‘Long Island Compromise’ by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
A great American Jewish novel whose brew of hilarity, heartbreak, and smarts recalls the best of Philip Roth. A triumph. Read more
(We earn a small commission if you click above and buy the book at Bookshop.org)
Robert Towne, Screenwriter of ‘Chinatown’ and More, Dies at 89
Robert Towne, whose screenplay for Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” won an Oscar, and whose work on that and other important films established him as one of the leading screenwriters of the so-called New Hollywood, died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles. Read more
