Murky Effects
A novel of desire and domestic disorder amid a disintegrating literary establishment.
Reviews
La Petite Mort
Harry Lighton’s film ‘Pillion’ offers a discreetly sanitized version of gay BDSM.
J. D. Vance’s Straussian Moment
The US vice president wrote his new book without citing his source—Peter Thiel.
Hell in a Go Bag
Jorie Graham takes a sparer approach to hell in her newest poetry collection.
Female Power Versus Toxic Masculinity
The three newly translated novellas in Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman’s ‘We Were Forbidden’ display a storytelling skill that seems magically effortless.
From the Archive
California Sons: Miriam Pawel’s “The Browns of California”
Jake Wertz reviews “The Browns of California,” a four-generation biography of the Brown family and a portrait of the state they shaped.
Why Didn’t India Build Its Own Silicon Valley?
Dwaipayan Banerjee’s new book investigates India’s role in the history of 20th-century tech development, and what caused it always to seem a step behind the West.
Sowing the Seeds of Apology
Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears makes amends in his new ‘astrological memoir.’
Bending the Arc of History
A new biography of Howard Zinn functions less as a detailed portrait of a man than as an inspirational manual for contemporary endurance.
The Uncommitted Man
A new translation of Ivan Turgenev’s 1867 novel ‘Smoke’ explores the main concerns of the author’s life.
Why Did the Roman Empire Last So Long?
Edward J. Watts’s history of the long Roman Empire is a traditional, top-down political narrative.
The Filmography That Launched a Thousand Ships
Decentering Homer and reflecting on the self-referential nature of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’
Anything Could Become a Battleground
Isaac Butler’s new book mixes history and personal testimony to examine the ‘culture wars’ that shaped the 1980s—conflicts that differed in striking ways from the ones we’re witnessing today.
The Fate of China’s Muslims
Two recent books track the history of China’s Muslim minority during a period of suspicion and suppression.
