Wesley Yang, The Souls of Yellow Folk
The Souls of Yellow Folk by Wesley Yang My rating: 4 of 5 stars It was once a pop-socio-psychological commonplace of American foreign-policy commentary that terrorism on behalf of political … Continue reading
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag My rating: 3 of 5 stars Susan Sontag’s oeuvre is a long palinode. Identified for years with the positions she took, or … Continue reading
Q, Conspiracy, and the Novel; or, Why Portraits and Ashes Should Be Your Summer Read
Readers who perceive an esoteric subtext to my writing and who therefore keep a paranoiac tally of my cryptic allusions will recall that I have mentioned the “Q” or “Qanon” … Continue reading
Gore Vidal, The City and the Pillar
The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal My rating: 3 of 5 stars A little over a decade and a half ago, Gore Vidal was one of the most … Continue reading
Tom Wolfe, Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers
Radical Chic & Mau Mauing The Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe My rating: 3 of 5 stars It’s a tiny bit arrogant of people to go around worrying about those … Continue reading
Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country
Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America by Richard M. Rorty My rating: 2 of 5 stars Richard Rorty is a Pragmatist philosopher: he believes that ideas and actions … Continue reading
My Year in Books, 2017
But let’s start with movies. Ten years ago, the Scottish musician and critic Momus observed that one of the most acclaimed films of 2007, Guillermo del Toro’s Spanish-Civil-War fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, … Continue reading
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates My rating: 4 of 5 stars It is a poor period indeed which must assess its men of letters in terms of … Continue reading
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson My rating: 3 of 5 stars I found Marilynne Robinson’s second novel, Gilead (2004), to be literally stunning. That is, every time I picked it up … Continue reading
Angela Nagle, Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right
Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right by Angela Nagle My rating: 3 of 5 stars Kill All Normies is like three … Continue reading
