The Optimist’s Daughter at fifty
A rich and daring novel reminds us that memory must be given its due
Books
Monday
Thursday
A royal affair
The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor — the Truth and the Turmoil by Tina Brown reviewed
Falling in line with Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis’s 1922 novel Babbitt is both a prophecy and a warning for America in the next century
Faces off
The Facemaker by Lindsey Fitzharris reviewed
Forever young
Friends Like These by Meg Rosoff reviewed
A quiet delight
The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón and My Grief, The Sun by Sanna Wani reviewed
Carry on regardless
The Twilight World by Werner Herzog reviewed
A grand slam
The Last Days of Roger Federer by Geoff Dyer reviewed
Monday
The energetic and tragic Keats
Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph by Lucasta Miller reviewed
Saturday
Why don’t men read novels?
The gender fiction gap isn’t as modern as we think
Wednesday
Can right-wing comedy be funny?
The left is more convinced it’s dangerous, which is a joke all its own
Wednesday
Dave Rubin’s lazy new book
It’s a case study in what not to do
Monday
Et in Arcadia ego
Interwar Oxford was less a world of dreaming spires and more one of constipated poets
The imperfect spy
A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen, America’s Most Damaging Russian Spy by Lis Wiehl reviewed
Faeries and queens
Flint and Mirror by John Crowley reviewed
Paradais City
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor reviewed
You had to be there
Everybody Thought We Were Crazy by Mark Rozzo reviewed
Standing with J.K. Rowling
A certain sector of the Harry Potter fandom has decided that the author is the devil incarnate
Sunday
Robert B. Shaw sees things as they are
He is one of those poets who is profound without sounding so
Sunday
Is the white male novelist disappearing?
They’re not gone, but they are being ignored by literary prize committees
