‘Huckleberry Finn’ through the eyes of Jim
Everett’s breezy, fast-moving retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is about putting in some due respect.
1m ago
Residence
I plead but I know there is nothing I can do. Akbar, in a rare fit of courage, tries to intervene. But the old man does not budge. Maybe he knows about Mina and me.
2m ago
Manufacturing praise
Sometime ago, a writer reached out to me with a request. His debut novel was being published later in the year and he was wondering if I would be open to reviewing it. I was aware of the book, having read it when it was still only a draft. The author was not someone I only knew, either, but a mentor who had supported my writing in many ways, even through monetary means. Refusing him, then, felt tantamount to betrayal. But I had to in the end, and though he understood, I still came out of the exchange feeling guilty of being unhelpful or, worse, ungrateful.
3m ago
A “knockout” debut from Rita Bullwinkel
The eight girls in Headshot clearly hope to escape the chaos of their lives in the ring.
3m ago
Whom is the propaganda on X for?
The disinformation game is now increasingly a part of our political makeup.
3m ago
Rabindranath’s rebellion
“The liberation that comes through sorrow is greater than the sorrow,” says Nikhilesh, in Home and the World. I quote from Penguin’s Modern Classics edition, in Sreejata Guha’s translation.
3m ago
We must never let such an environment of fear reign again
Fear cannot ever lead to forgetting.
3m ago
When death is a performance
Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is unruly and endearing. Akbar’s years as a poet has given his debut novel an honesty that shines through the book’s arduous structure. And for all of Martyr!’s exhilarating tone and emotional trek, the difficulties of writing a novel on addiction, martyrdom, death, and meaning is evident when one reads it.
4m ago
January 5, 2023
Blurry in Berlin: Amit Chaudhuri’s ‘Sojourn’
Amit Chaudhuri is one of our most gifted writers, a Bengali novelist and musician with an accomplished repertoire.
December 1, 2022
Andy Warhol & Truman Capote talk out their anxieties
Andy Warhol suggested they tape their conversations on his Sony Walkman, to which Truman Capote agrees.
September 26, 2022
Hilary Mantel gave richness to historical fiction
She wrote with vitality, a realness that seemed somewhat dangerous on paper.
September 22, 2022
Race and unease in Mohsin Hamid’s ‘The Last White Man’
In The Last White Man, Hamid uses an anodyne, clinical voice to set an atmosphere of unease of a white society panicking within, as a wave of darkness intrudes their skin, turning them impure, perhaps wild.
August 25, 2022
Ottessa Moshfegh’s ‘Lapvona’: A fairy tale for realists
Lapvona has paupers becoming princes, severe environmental disruptions adding to the owe of the common folk, and the old lady acting as a witch and healer, who serves in the role of a fairy godmother, albeit with a modern touch.
August 4, 2022
At the Blums’—A review of 'The Netanyahus' by Joshua Cohen
Cohen’s book confidently deals with the comedy of the Jewish family.
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