The mega-bestselling author Matt Haig and the limits of the therapy novel. Read more
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Category: Essays
The Misfit Wisdom of Harry, Barry and Larry
Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and Larry Brown were part of a Southern writers’ movement that centered dissidents and outsiders. They’re still worth reading. Read more
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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
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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
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Can You Read a Book in a Quarter of an Hour?
Blinkist is an app. If I had to summarize what it does, I would say that it summarizes like crazy. It takes an existing book and crunches it down to a series of what are called Blinks. On average, these amount to around two thousand words. Some of the books that get Blinked are gleamingly new, such as “Leading with Light,” by Jennifer Mulholland and Jeff Shuck, which was published in March; other books are so old that they were written by people whose idea of a short-haul flight involved feathers and wax. In the realm of nonfiction alone, more than six and a half thousand works have been subjected to the Blinkist treatment. Across all platforms, there have been thirty-one million downloads on the app. Right now, there will be somebody musing over Blinks of “Biohack Your Brain,” “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” or “The Power of Going All-In,” which is, I am sorry to report, yet another study of successful leadership. Given the title, I was hoping that it might be about breakfast buffets, or the best way to behave yourself at an orgy. Read more
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Why I Kept My Kinks a Secret by R. O. Kwon
Kink is a large, shifting term, with outlines etched less by what it is than is not, this single word applied to an ever-changing negative space. Lina Dune, a prominent kink writer and podcaster, defines kink as any sexual act or practice diverging “one tiny step outside of what you were brought up to believe is acceptable.” So, bondage, sadomasochism, fetishes, and role play are examples of kinks, and these aren’t fringe penchants. By some measures, 40% to 70% of people might be kinky; given the stigma, this estimate could be on the low end. Read more
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The Crime Novelist Who Was Also a Great American Novelist
Chester Himes was on par with Ellison, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, S.A. Cosby writes. Read more
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A Hopeful Reminder: You’re Going to Die
Fifty years on, Ernest Becker’s “The Denial of Death” remains an essential, surprisingly upbeat guide to our final act on Earth. Read more
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How Christmas Murder Mysteries Became a UK Holiday Tradition
In these Christmas tales, Santa has a very low survival rate. Read more
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The Old Man at Christmas
The humorist Jean Shepherd—whose writings inspired A Christmas Story—left a surprisingly deep impression on American culture. Read more
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