Beautiful and damned
Astrid Sees All by Natalie Standiford reviewed
Books
Thursday
Dirty realists
The beauty of dirty realism is that it captures regular life in all its stupefying, and sometimes transcendent, malaise
Monday
Against Hope
Hope: A Literary History by Adam Potkay reviewed
Friday
Time for Jack Kerouac to hit the road
He and the Beats aren’t nearly as good as annoying young men imagine
Monday
Imagining Rimbaud
The more one knows about Rimbaud and literary criticism, the more one will enjoy the book’s subtler jibes
Sunday
A gay fandango
Joie de Vivre by Paul Bailey reviewed
Fall and decline
After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque through Revolution and War by Helen Rappaport reviewed
Our enemy’s enemy
Fugitives: A History of Nazi Mercenaries During the Cold War by Danny Orbach reviewed
For whom the bell tolls
Hemingway’s Widow: The Life and Legacy of Mary Welsh Hemingway by Timothy Christian reviewed
I’m a Latinx person of letters
The POC victim narrative is a systemic problem
Wednesday
P.J. O’Rourke, a conservative of enjoyment
The legendary satirist hearkened back to a day when the right knew how to smile
P.J. O’Rourke mastered the art of teasing
The late great satirist chose pleasant ribbing over contempt, and made us all laugh along the way
Sunday
We don’t need more literary magazines
Rather, we need better ones
Thursday
The deep conservatism of Agatha Christie
Her stories always saw good triumph over evil, while resisting social anarchies
Sunday
Working out isn’t so new after all
From religion to war, exercise over the centuries has been shaped by many influences
Thursday
Writing poetry in East Germany
A new book documents how art emerged out of brutality and socialism
Sunday
The age of the media explainer
Pundits and scientists love to explain, but what if the answer is too complicated?
Monday
Getting the jokes in Proust
A dismaying number of Proust readers don’t realize it’s supposed to be funny
Reality bit
True Story: What Reality TV Says about Us by Danielle Lindemann reviewed
Reading gaol
Sentence: Ten Years and a Thousand Books in Prison by Daniel Genis reviewed