- Daniel Mendelsohn: Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Homer’s Iliad.
For sheer weirdness, it would be hard to find a passage in the Western canon that can compete with the tenth book of Homer’s Iliad—the one classicists call the Doloneia, “the bit about Dolon.” Not the least of the book’s oddities is . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: Carl Theodor Dreyer’s “Vampyr,” at BAM.
A tear slides from the eye of a young woman. In one evening, she has lost both her father and, to judge by the slash on her neck, her immortal soul. Soon, however, she stops weeping, looks up at her innocent sister, and smiles with bared teeth. This blend of . . ....
- Hilton Als: Daniel Goldfarb on a postwar revenge plot.
In the perhaps too orderly world of Daniel Goldfarb’s imagination, interesting things can happen, but not when the author’s in control. A literary sprinter by nature—his first acts have an almost staccato rhythm, as the absurdities pile up—Goldfarb sags when he has . . ....
- Ruth Franklin: A rediscovered master of Holocaust writing.
In the spring of 1950, the philosopher and cultural critic Theodor Adorno, who was then teaching at the University of Frankfurt, received a letter from H. G. Adler, an unknown scholar living in London. Adler informed Adorno that he had reviewed the professor’s “Philosophy in Modern Music . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Daniel Mendelsohn: Arthur Rimbaud’s brief career.
On a winter day in 1883, aboard a steamer that was returning him from Marseilles to the Arabian port city of Aden, a French coffee trader named Alfred Bardey struck up a conversation with a countryman he’d met on board, a young journalist named Paul Bourde. As Bardey . . ....
- Daniel Mendelsohn: The history of memoirs.
In August of 1929, Sigmund Freud scoffed at the notion that he would do anything as crass as write an autobiography. “That is of course quite an impossible suggestion,” he wrote to his nephew, who had conveyed an American publisher’s suggestion that the great man write . . ....
- Daniel Mendelsohn: Why do we love the Titanic?
In the early nineteen-seventies, my Uncle Walter, who wasn’t a “real” uncle but had a better intuition about my hobbies and interests than some of my blood relatives did, gave me a thrilling gift: membership in the Titanic Enthusiasts of America. I was only twelve . . ....
- Daniel Mendelsohn: Three novel takes on the Greek epic.
Toward the end of John Banville’s new novel, “The Infinities” (Knopf; $25.95), a more or less contemporary tale over which the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes rather startlingly preside, a snooty character to whom someone is describing an “updated” production of a play . . ....
- Hilton Als: James M. Cain on the grass widow.
In the rancorous universe of James M. Cain’s early novels, life’s a bitch and she wears lipstick and a skirt. Men who should know better—cynical guys with hearts the size of a blister—burst wide open when they meet the dames who will . . ....
- Joan Acocella: Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret mysteries and literary hard novels.
Those who know anything about Georges Simenon usually know at least three things. The first is that he divided his energies between detective novels and “straight” novels. The former made him one of the highest-earning writers in the world in the mid-twentieth century, and barred him . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “Friends with Kids,” “Attenberg” reviews.
In order to understand “Friends with Kids,” think of it as “Friends” with kids. The place is the same—a pocket of New York—and the math is identical. Six long-standing pals: three women, three of the opposite flavor. Four of them divided . . ....
- Ben McGrath: Daniel Pinkwater on “The Hare and the Pineapple.”
Not long ago, Daniel Pinkwater opened his front door, in the Mid-Hudson Valley, to greet a person who had come to mow his lawn. “Pineapples don’t have sleeves!” the mower blurted out. This was the same week in which Roger Sterling dropped acid, on “ . . ....
- Sam Shepard: “Land of the Living”
8220;It’s just amazing how friendly you become when you’re on Xanax,” she says. This is after we’ve been standing in the long, snaking customs line for over an hour in the torrid Cancún heat. We’re being herded, shoulder . . ....
- Daniel Mendelsohn: The Vatican Library enters the twenty-first century.
One day early in the sixteen-twenties, in a quiet room near the heart of the Vatican Palace, an archivist working in the library of the Holy See stumbled upon a text that certain people had been trying to get their hands on for the better part of a thousand . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Donald Antrim: “Ever Since.”
Ever since his wife had left him—but she wasn’t his wife, was she? he’d only thought of her that way, had begun to think of her that way, since her abrupt departure, the year before, with Richard Bishop—Jonathan had taken up a . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Goings on About Town: Isaac Mizrahi
paragraph class="noindent">Isaac Mizrahi’s brand-new shop on the Upper East Side is long and slender, like a fashion model—except, of course, not as slender. It is the designer’s first boutique. “I never was someone who thought it was my job to . . ....
- 20 Under 40 Fiction Q. & A.: Daniel Alarcón.
Daniel Alarcón was featured in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. His story will appear later in the summer.
When were you born?
March 5, 1977.
Where?
Lima . . ....
- Daniel Zalewski: Guillermo del Toro’s quest to get amazing creatures onscreen.
In 1926, Forrest Ackerman, a nine-year-old misfit in Los Angeles, visited a newsstand and bought a copy of Amazing Stories—a new magazine about aliens, monsters, and other oddities. By the time he reached the final page, he had become America’s first fanboy. He started . . ....
- Daniel Zalewski: Guillermo del Toro’s quest to get amazing creatures onscreen.
In 1926, Forrest Ackerman, a nine-year-old misfit in Los Angeles, visited a newsstand and bought a copy of Amazing Stories—a new magazine about aliens, monsters, and other oddities. By the time he reached the final page, he had become America’s first fanboy. He started . . ....
- Sasha Frere-Jones: Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Replica” and Daniel Lopatin’s keyboards.
It’s odd to think of experimental music as being a family affair, but for Daniel Lopatin, whose new album, “Replica,” is phenomenal, a large influence has been a synthesizer inherited from his father. Lopatin, who records as Oneohtrix Point Never, grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts, twenty . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Kay Ryan: “The Long Up.”
You can see the
land flattening out
near the top. The
long up you’ve faced
is going to stop.
Your eyes feast
on space instead
of pitch as though
you’d been released.
The measured pace
you’ve kept corrupts
with fifty yards
to do— . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Hanna Goldfield: Talde in Park Slope review.
paragraph class="noindent">Ten years ago, the cooking of the Filipino-American chef Dale Talde might have been categorized as Asian fusion, a designation that today holds all the appeal of a frozen stir-fry dinner. In 2012, Talde—standing, perhaps, on David Chang’s shoulders—has . . ....
- Hilton Als: David Ives’s “Venus in Fur.”
The cruelty of women! For Severin—the endlessly needy anti-hero of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s short, intense erotic novel, “Venus in Furs,” published in 1870—there is no love without denial. We first learn about this Galician nobleman’s passionate, almost clinical . . ....
- Stephen King: “Premium Harmony”
They’ve been married for ten years and for a long time everything was O.K.—swell—but now they argue. Now they argue quite a lot. It’s really all the same argument. It has circularity. It is, Ray thinks, like a dog track. When they . . ....
- Joan Acocella: Why do people love Stieg Larsson’s novels?
Having got American readers to buy more than fourteen million copies, collectively, of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy books—“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2008, American edition), “The Girl Who Played with Fire” (2009), and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’ . . ....
- David Denby: “Crazy Horse,” “Contraband,” “Haywire” reviews.
In “Crazy Horse,” Frederick Wiseman’s documentary about the legendary Paris nude revue, all the women have the same body—tall, with small, high breasts, long waists, long legs, and full, rounded rumps. There’s a definite preference, bordering on fixation, at Le Crazy Horse . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Javier Marías: “While the Women Are Sleeping”
For three weeks, I saw them every day, and now I don’t know what has become of them. I’ll probably never see them again—at least, not her. Summer conversations, and even confidences, rarely lead anywhere.
I nearly always saw them at the beach, where . . ....
- Comic Book Survival – How Comics and Graphic Novels Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century
The new level of refinement in comics and graphic novels have earned the consideration of Hollywood as more comics properties are snapped up and adapted for motion pictures. Comics and graphic novels have returned to their social entertainment roots....
