A lack of national identity has killed off the Great American Novel
The future of American fiction is not in New York’s publishing houses, nor in the pages of the New York Times
American literature
Tuesday
Tuesday
The passage of Ragtime
Half a century on, how does E.L. Doctorow’s great American novel fare?
Thursday
The final act of Thomas Pynchon
The most reclusive major author in America is having something of a moment in 2025 and is set to release his ninth novel
Tuesday
The talented Evan S. Connell
He might be the greatest American novelist you’ve never heard of
Monday
Blake Butler: ‘I don’t want this story to end as “Molly killed herself”’
The author was criticized for his revealing memoir about his late wife
Sunday
Oppenheimer’s passenger
Christopher Nolan and Cormac McCarthy’s fissile Westerns
Thursday
What makes a novel funny?
In search of the great American comic novel
Thursday
Literary journal in flames after interview with Spectator writer
Alex Perez snaps Hobart Pulp
Tuesday
Has the American novel abandoned God?
Our literary life today speaks of a crisis of faith
Monday
The Optimist’s Daughter at fifty
A rich and daring novel reminds us that memory must be given its due
Thursday
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
Sunday
Fifty years of Fear and Loathing
Hunter S. Thompson saw the twenty-first century coming
Wednesday
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
Friday
Books you shouldn’t read in public
To read is to invite derision, especially if you grew up in a working-class town
Ever the Twain
For an artist to qualify as a genius, he only has to do create a single masterpiece once. Twain did it twice