Hilary Mantel — a death before her time
English literature has been robbed of one of its most fascinating voices
Books
Friday
Tuesday
Porn again
There’s no reconciling the clash between the sex positivity movement and chastity
T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land at 100
A century after its first publication, the poem still defies easy categorization
Paul Theroux’s family values
He’s never been averse to writing about toxic family relationships
A.M. Homes’s state of paranoia
Her latest leaves us stranded between serious fiction and a particularly extreme Reddit forum
The faulty towers of higher education
The college system is broken — can it be fixed?
Frank Buckley’s right direction
Can a socially conservative, economically centrist GOP win elections?
Monday
Reading Flannery O’Connor under quarantine
The great writer wrestles with the questions of our time
The liberal arts are worth defending against ‘multiculturalists’
As the kids head back to school, it’s time to think about what they’re actually learning
Sunday
The unfortunate misogyny of Philip Larkin
When he wasn’t obsessing over pornography, he could be truly insightful and touching
Friday
The attack on Salman Rushdie is an ominous warning
The danger seemed to have passed but extremists continue to plague the world
Wednesday
Blake Bailey deserves to be heard one more time
The disgraced biographer may be ‘repellent’ but he still has a right to free speech
Monday
Evelyn Waugh’s sincerest form of flattery
He had a major but unsung inspiration: the now-neglected novelist William Gerhardie
Henry Kissinger’s likely last book is on leadership
And his biographies of great lives sparkle nicely
Mary Gaitskill and the body electric
Why do we find the dark side of sexuality so terrifying?
Berlin as the unreal city
A new book makes you ask, somewhat apprehensively, what will happen there next
Friday
Literature reminds us that indolence is underrated
What are we missing out on in our endless pursuit of productivity?
Thursday
Books you should plan to read this fall
The temperature might have soared but there’s plenty of good lit to look forward to
Thursday
The rise of gay Washington
Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington by James Kirchick reviewed
The circus that was 80s literary Britain
A new book remembers all the excitement and absurdity