The Encyclopedia of New York Pop MusicAn impressionistic, anecdotal, suggestive, but by definition incomplete survey of the past 100 years of New York pop.
The City and the StormThe calm before the storm was much too calm, which should have been a clue. Forecasters had been talking about a potential Halloween hurricane—t […]
10. Because Bill Keller Kept His Calm.He assumed his captaincy of the New York Times in the wake of a mutiny that was among the most painful episodes in the history of the paper.
Julian Schnabel’s Vie En RoseHe was the most famous—and controversial—painter of the eighties. But now, with a powerful new movie, and a pinkish Village palazzo, he’s thrivi […]
Tom Perrotta’s Sex-Ed BookReading Tom Perrotta’s new novel, ‘The Abstinence Teacher’, you might just imagine that you’ve picked up his last one, ‘Little Children’, by mistake.
The Kids Are—Yawn—AlrightTeenagers assumed their current form in 1945, says Teenage. No wonder their antics can seem a little stale.
Fillet of SoulAndrew Sullivan strips conservatism to its core, slicing out the fundamentalism. But his most interesting argument is with himself.
Orifice RexFrom whence does the sublime emerge? In his wonderful new novel, Memorial, Bruce Wagner has some ideas.
Richard Ford’s Manly MeditationsReading Ford, you can feel uplifted and empowered in a way that might make you wonder if his books are really novels at all, and not some sublim […]
Read and Approved: Eclectic Beach FareStill looking for a summer book that isn’t 100 percent trashy? Perhaps even one that’s 100 percent non-trashy (say, on Spinoza)? Here are five n […]
Because Bush Is Not Our FaultNo. 1After every malapropism, every inadvertent display of incuriosity, every heartbreaking show of incompetence, we can remind ourselves we had […]
The Weekend WorrierTo have your own fun in the summer, it appears necessary to have contempt for someone else’s.
Aural ReportGeoffrey O’Brien uses the pop music he grew up with as the madeleine to unlock his memory. Too bad he can’t quite take us with him.
Soft AloftChang-rae Lee’s new novel of the Long Island suburbs, Aloft, is billowing and insubstantial, like a cloud on a summer afternoon.
Saint BoozeAfter saving himself from alcohol, Bill Wilson founded AA and saved millions of others. But Susan Cheever forgives him his other addictions.
Bet NoirIn new memoirs, David Denby and Pete Rose explore the dark side of the American Dream. They didn’t plan to be quite so funny.
Kings of AmericaIn his new book, ex-Republican Kevin Phillips writes
less a work of history than a screed and a lament.
He hasn’t changed; the GOP has.
The Place To BeFrom the Stork and El Morocco to Max’s, Studio, and Moomba, legends were made
in the nighttime. 100 years of New York’s greatest s […]
Blue’s CluesA blue notebook holds the key to the overintricate
plot of Paul Auster’s new novel about a blocked
writer from—how did you guess?& […]
Daddy WarholSteven Watson’s excellent new history of Warhol in the sixties shows him as a highly permissive father in a Manhattan avant-garde sitcom.
HellywoodIn his hilarious (often repulsive) Still Holding, Bruce Wagner devises a world of torment (and ironic Buddhist salvation) for Beverly Hills.
Better Off TedA new biography argues that far from drowning them
in domesticity, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s
marriage enabled them to write.
California Screamin’Joan Didion has checked out of California—but
as her new memoir, Where I Was From,
shows, she can never leave.
Fear of FlyingJonathan Lethem’s new novel is located somewhere on
a grid defined by race relations, a comic book, and
spaldeens. But where, exactly?
To Tie-Die ForFrom the colorful literature-devouring vortex that
was the Grateful Dead tour emerges Max Ludington’s lucid, powerful new novel.
Cassus BellowWhy does Adam Bellow praise nepotism?
He says it has nothing to do with
his famous father. Really.
Electric Ladies’ ManBenjamin Franklin, genius and rake, the first American superstar, proves more than a match for
Walter Isaacson in a new biography.
Hill of DreamsLiving History comes up short on gossip and revenge, but why blame Hillary for being a politician?
Sex, What a PityCandace Bushnell helped invent the world she describes in her new novel—so why does Trading Up feel like it was written by someone […]
Mortal SplendorThe depth and richness of Norman Rush’s second novel, Mortals, give him his own shelf in the canon.
Reading Roone’sBy changing TV—first ABC Sports, then ABC News—Roone Arledge changed the way we see the world (and invented a host of stars, from Ge […]
Descent of ManJames Frey’s barroom machismo is the key to a swaggering recovery in his new memoir of addiction.
Pulling the PlugFrom the wilderness (the Adirondacks) comes a voice (Bill McKibben’s Enough) telling us that the end is near unless we repent (tech […]
