Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-4 Oct.-Dec.

Continues: Exploring Books Through Articles, Reviews, Announcements, & Lists 2023-3 July-September

NYRB Online Oct. 5 2023
NYRB tends to date its issues a couple weeks ahead; these articles & reviews were actually posted in Sept.

Literature

Jennifer Wilson. Mother Russia. Review of: Kidnapped: A Story in Crimes / Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz.

A.E. Stallings. ‘Obedient to Their Words.’ Review of: Simonides: Epigrams and Elegies / edited and translated from the Greek by David Sider.

Larry Rohter. Searching for the True Brazil. Review of: Macunaíma: The Hero with No Character / Mário de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese by Katrina Dodson -- The Apprentice Tourist: Travels Along the Amazon to Peru, Along the Madeira to Bolivia, and Around Marajó Before Saying Enough Already / Mário de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese and with an introduction and notes by Flora Thomson-DeVeaux -- Amar, Verbo Intransitivo/ To Love, Intransitive Verb / Mário de Andrade, translated from the Portuguese by Ana Lessa-Schmidt.

Arts

George B. Stauffer. Where Are the Women Composers? Review of: Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World / Leah Broad.

E. Tammy Kim. Storyboards and Solidarity. Review of: The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation’s Golden Age / by Jake S. Friedman.

Christopher Benfey. Constable’s Quiet Tumult. Review of: John Constable: A Portrait / James Hamilton -- Constable’s White Horse / William Kentridge and Aimee Ng -- Late Constable / Anne Lyles, Matthew Hargraves, and others.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Lynn Hunt. The Orphan Among Revolutions. Review of: Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848–1849 / Christopher Clark.

Daniel J. Kevles. Unreasonable Terms. Review of: Owning the Sun: A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to Covid-19 Vaccines / Alexander Zaitchik.

Noah Feldman. The Court’s Conservative Constitutional Revolution. (Essay)

Bill McKibben. Toward a Land of Buses and Bikes. Review of: Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet / Ben Goldfarb -- Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World / Henry Grabar.

Tim Judah. Ukraine’s New Normal. (Essay)

Daniel M. Lavery. Coq au Pépin. Review of: Art of the Chicken: A Master Chef’s Paintings, Stories, and Recipes of the Humble Bird / Jacques Pépin.

NYRB Online Oct. 19 2023

Literature

Cathleen Schine. The Voyage Out. Review of: After Sappho / Selby Wynn Schwartz.

Michael Hofmann. Punning for Germany. Review of: The Short End of the Sonnenallee / Thomas Brussig, translated from the German by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson, with an introduction by Jonathan Franzen.

Charlie Lee. The Way of All Flesh. Review of: The Love of Singular Men / Victor Heringer, translated from the Portuguese by James Young.

Arts

Jenny Uglow. ‘A Haughty Independence.’ Review of: Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris / Alicia Foster -- Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, an exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, England, May 13–October 8, 2023.

Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo. ‘Give Me All the Power.’ Review of: Break It All: The History of Rock in Latin America / a Netflix documentary series written by Nicolas Entel and Nicolas Gueilburt and directed by Picky Talarico.

Megan O'Grady. Art as Action. Review of: Stuff: Instead of a Memoir / Lucy R. Lippard.

Adam Kirsch. Intolerable Freedoms. Review of: Three Colors: Blue, White, and Red,
a trilogy of films written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, and cowritten by Krzysztof Piesiewicz.

Philip Clark. The Transgressor. Review of: Chuck Berry: An American Life / RJ Smith.

History, Politics, Society, & Culture

Gary Younge. ‘We Return Fighting.’ Review of: Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad / Matthew F. Delmont.

David Shulman. Heading Toward a Second Nakba. Review of: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy / Nathan Thrall.

Suzy Hansen. Twenty Years of Outsourced War. Review of: Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War / Phil Klay -- Missionaries / Phil Klay.

Kim Phillips-Fein. Conspicuous Destruction. Review of: Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America / Brendan Ballou -- These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America / Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner.

Natalie Angier. Not Milk? Review of: Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood / Anne Mendelson.

David Motadel. Is Prussian Militarism a Myth? Review of: Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500 / Peter H. Wilson.

Gregory Afinogenov. Field Maneuvers. Review of: Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace / Alexander Mikaberidze.

Susan Neiman. Historical Reckoning Gone Haywire. (Essay: "Germans’ efforts to confront their country’s criminal history and to root out antisemitism have shifted from vigilance to a philosemitic McCarthyism that threatens their rich cultural life.")

Graeme Wood. The Atlantic, 10/02/2023: What Emily Wilson's Iliad Misses: Her new translation is inviting to modern readers, but doesn’t capture the barbaric world of the original.

Adam Kirsch. Jewish Review of Books, fall 2023: Ruthless Cosmopolitans. Review of: Maestros & Monsters: Days & Nights with Susan Sontag & George Steiner / Robert Boyers.

An interview: "The writer’s painstaking attention to the smallest units of language scales up to momentous questions about how errors of communication shape human relations."

Merve Emre. New Yorker, 10/01/2023: Why Lydia Davis Loves Misunderstandings.

Two more from The New Yorker:

Margaret Talbot. 10/02/2023: What Really Started the Great Chicago Fire? Review of: The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul / Scott W. Berg.

Ruth Franklin. 10/02/2023: How Queer Is “Frankenstein”? Review of: Mary and the Birth of Frankenstein: A Novel / Anne Eeekhout -- Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel / C.E. McGill -- Reproduction: A Novel / Louisa Hall.

Elizabeth A. Harris. NYT, 10/03/2023: Here Are the Finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards.

Note: the longlist is on the previous thread, item 78.

Fiction:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars

Aaliyah Bilal, Temple Folk

Paul Harding, This Other Eden

Hanna Pylväinen, The End of Drum-Time

Justin Torres, Blackouts

Nonfiction:

Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice

Christina Sharpe, Ordinary Notes

Raja Shehadeh, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

John Vaillant, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

Poetry:

John Lee Clark, How to Communicate: poems

Craig Santos Perez, from unincorporated territory åmot

Evie Shockley, suddenly we

Brandon Som, Tripas: poems

Monica Youn, From From: poems

Translated Literature:

Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny
Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur

David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor

Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain
Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato

Pilar Quintana, Abyss
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman

Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness
Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott

Young People's Literature

Kenneth M. Cadow, Gather

Huda Fahmy, Huda F Cares?

Vashti Harrison, Big

Katherine Marsh, The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine

Dan Santat, A First Time for Everything

Also:

Sophia Nguyen. WaPo, 10/03/2023: Here are the finalists for the 2023 National Book Awards.

Adrian Horton. Guardian, 10/03/2023: Paul Harding and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah among National Book Award finalists.

Emma Sarappo. The Atlantic, 10/02/2023: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘I Worry That What We’re Looking at Is the End of Curiosity.’

TLS October 6, 2023|No. 6288

Featured:

Marion Turner. When poetry was everything: English verse before and after Chaucer. Review of: THE OXFORD HISTORY OF POETRY IN ENGLISH: Volume 2: Medieval poetry 1100-1400 / Helen Cooper and Robert R. Edwards, editors -- THE OXFORD HISTORY OF POETRY IN ENGLISH: Volume 3: Medieval poetry 1400-1500 / Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, editors.

Nick Lowe. Finding a voice of bronze: A new translation of the Iliad and a quest for its author. Review of: HOMER AND HIS ILIAD / Robin Lane Fox -- THE ILIAD / Homer; translated by Emily Wilson.

Nelly Kaprièlian. Trouble makers: When French women write about sexual freedom. (Essay)

Claire Lowden. Into the woods: A young girl sets out for safety in seventeenth-century Virginia. Review of: THE VASTER WILDS / Lauren Groff.

Literature & Bibliography

Clifford Thompson. Working for the Man: Murder and racism in a counterfactual 1920s America. Review of: CAHOKIA JAZZ / Francis Spufford.

Catriona Seth. Big bad wolves: French chivalrous tales in a contemporary context. Review of: AU NON DES FEMMES: Libérer nos classiques du regard masculin / Jennifer Tamas.

Henry Hitchings. Book burning: Is the destruction of printed matter always a tragedy? Review of: THE BOOK AT WAR: Libraries and readers in an age of conflict / Andrew Pettegree.

Susie Thomas. Kureishi’s chronicles: A writer who redefined what it means to be English. Review of: HANIF KUREISHI: Writing the self / Ruvani Ranasinha.

Irina Dumitrescu. The Devil’s shortcuts: ChatGPT and moralizing medieval tales.

In Brief Review of: RATTLEBONE / Maxine Clark.

In Brief Review of: THE PORPOISE AND THE OTTER: The literary friendship of Max Beerbohm and G. K. Chesterton / William Blissett.

Norma Clarke. Asleep with eyes open: An eighteenth-century botanist reckons with his colonial past. Review of: BEYOND THE DOOR OF NO RETURN / David Diop; translated by Sam Taylor.

Horticulture

Ysende Maxtone Graham. Bloomin’ marvellous: How women gardeners won the struggle to be taken seriously. Review of: AN ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE THING: The radical lives of Britain’s pioneering women gardeners / Fiona Davison.

Ann Kennedy Smith. Roddons and cruck barns: An archaeologist makes the English desert bloom. Review of: A FENLAND GARDEN: Creating a haven for people, plants and wildlife / Francis Pryor.

In Brief Review of: UPROOTING: From the Caribbean to the countryside – finding home in an English country garden / Marchelle Farrell.

Arts

Lucy Dallas. Letting the days go by: Talking Heads in their prime, captured on stage. Review of the Jonathan Demme film of the Talking Heads performance Stop Making Sense.

Guy Dammann. The death of a child: George Benjamin’s new opera: the expression of a fundamental mystery. Review of: George Benjamin's opera PICTURE A DAY LIKE THIS, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House.

Michael Caines. Chemistry lessons: A starry two-hander set on Hampstead Heath. Review of Ben Weatherill's play FRANK AND PERCY, The Other Palace, London, until December 17.

Religion

David Aberbach. Sins of the fatherland: The author of I and Thou was rejected by the country he loved. Review of: I AND THOU: 100th anniversary reissue / Martin Buber; translated by Ro.

History, Politics, & Society

Mick Gidley. Trails of tears: The destruction of the Native American tribes in the South. Review of: A BRUTAL RECKONING: The Creek Indians and the epic war for the American South / Peter Cozzens.

Colin Rose. Murder most common: Why homicide rates rose as Europe became more ‘civilized.’ Review of: ENMITY AND VIOLENCE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE / Stuart Carroll.

Waqar Zaidi. Great British boffins?: The inventors of radio beams and the bouncing bomb. Review of: The Battle of the Beams: The secret science of radar that turned the tide of the Second World War / Tom Whipple -- DAM BUSTER: Barnes Wallis: An engineer’s life/ Richard Morris.

Hannah White. Parliament of fouls: Rule-breaking and criminality in the UK’s democratic institution. Review of: THE ABUSE OF POWER: Confronting injustice in public life / Theresa May -- CODES OF CONDUCT: Why we need to fix parliament – and how to do it / Chris Bryant.

Ian Cawood. Cleaning up: Labour governments past, and the examples they set. Review of: The Men of 1924 / Peter Clark -- AGE OF HOPE: Labour, 1945, and the birth of modern Britain / Richard Toye.

Robin Fodor. Friends in high places: Chris Mullin looks on from the sidelines. Review of: DIDN’T YOU USE TO BE CHRIS MULLIN?: Diaries 2010–22 / Chris Mullin.

In Brief Review of: The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge / Joshua Ehrlich.

In Brief Review of: MY RUSSIA: War or peace? / Mikhail Shishkin; translated by Gesche Ipsen.

Geography

In Brief Review of: A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma / Noreen Masud.

In Brief Review of: THE WAY OF THE HERMIT: My incredible 40 years living in the wilderness / Ken Smith, with Will Millard.

Recent reviews from The New Yorker:

Corey Robin. 10/04/2023: How Do We Survive the Constitution?. Review of: How Democracies Die / Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (2019) -- and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point / Levitsky and Ziblatt (2023).

Emily Witt. 09/27/2023 (missed this last month): How the AR-15 Became an American Brand. Review of: American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15 / Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson.

Jonathan Kirshner. LARB, 10/02/2023: Addressing the China Challenge: Realisms Right and Wrong. Review of: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics / John J. Mearsheimer (2014 updated version) -- Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? / Graham Allison.

Suzanne Eckes. The Conversation, 10/02/2023: Where the Supreme Court stands on banning books.

"The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded on Thursday to the Norwegian novelist and playwright Jon Fosse “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.”"

Alex Marshall. NYT, 10/05/2023: Nobel Prize in Literature: Jon Fosse Is the 2023 Laureate.

Randy Boyagada. NYT, 10/05/2023: Jon Fosse’s Books Seek and Find the Divine: The Nobel Prize winner writes about characters trying to transcend their worldly lives.

Damion Searls. Atlantic, 10/05/2023: The Nobel Winner Whose Writing Speaks to Everyone: Jon Fosse’s English translator on the author’s evocation of peacefulness.

Catherine Taylor. Guardian, 10/05/2023: Where to start with: Jon Fosse: Having long been tipped as the next Nobel laureate, the Norwegian writer has this year been awarded the prize. For those new to the acclaimed playwright and novelist, here are some good ways in.

Jill Pellettieri. WaPo, 10/05/2023: Norwegian writer Jon Fosse receives the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alex Shepherd. TNR, 10/05/2023: With Jon Fosse’s Win, the Nobel Prize in Literature Is So Back: The once wild-and-woolly literary award has entered its steady and serious era.

Merve Emre. New Yorker, 10/06/2023: Jon Fosse, the Nobel Prize, and the Art of What Can’t Be Named.

From 2022:

Merve Emre. New Yorker, 11/13/2022: Jon Fosse’s Search for Peace. (An interview)

Remo Verdickt, Emiel Roothooft. LARB, 12/31/2022: A Second, Silent Language: A Conversation with Jon Fosse. On the occasion of the publication of Septology I–VII / Jon Fosse; translated by Damion Searls.

From 2021:

Ruth Margalit. NYRB, 10/23/2021: The Mystical Realist: Jon Fosse’s Septology is suffused with religious symbolism, taking on, in its incantatory language and repetitions, the rhythm of the rosary. Review of: The Other Name: Septology I–II / Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls -- I Is Another: Septology III–V / Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls.

Dan Sinykin. Slate, 10/01/2023: The Man Who Invented Fantasy: All those wizards, ogres, and barely-clad elf queens in the bookstore? You have Lester del Rey to thank.

"A new exhibition tells the story of the Armed Services Editions, pocket-size paperback weapons in the fight for democracy."

Jennifer Schuessler. NYT, 10/06/2023: How the Humble Paperback Helped Win World War II. (At the Grolier Club, Manhattan, through Dec. 30)

Complaints about reading stuff on the Internet:

David Samuels. Table, 10/02/2023: The Chained Reader: How the logic of machines makes us less human.

Newsworthy books & authors in The New Yorker:

Gideon Lewis-Kraus. 10/04/2023: Michael Lewis’s Big Contrarian Bet. Regarding Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon / Michael Lewis, regarding crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.

Margret Grebowicz. 10/07/2023: Terry Bisson’s History of the Future. On science fiction writer Terry Bisson: "Each month, for the Bay Area sci-fi trade magazine Locus, Bisson drafts four short paragraphs about future events. The paragraphs, with brief headlines (“Pope weds,” “Apple buys Estée Lauder,” “Suez Canal closes”) appear in little boxes under the title “This Month in History,” and are each associated with specific dates (July 16, 2049; May 26, 2105; and June 7, 2255, respectively)."

Jay Kaspian Kang. 10/07/2023: Ibram X. Kendi, Hasan Minhaj, and the Question of Selling Out. Hasan Minhaj is a comedian whose semi-autobiographical takes are somewhat fictional, Ibram Kendi is the author of Stamped from the Beginning & How to be an Antiracist.

A new biography of the author of the James Bond books:

D J Taylor. Literary Review, 10/2023: Becoming James Bond. Review of: Ian Fleming: The Complete Man / Nicholas Shakespeare.

Assorted book recommendations from fivebooks.com:

Arianna Reiche, interviewed by Uri Bram. 10/03/2023: The Best Ergodic Fiction. Lecturer in metafiction at City, University of London, & the author of At the End of Every Day: a novel, recommends:

Christopher Manson, Maze: solve the world's most challenging puzzle

Mark Z. Danielewski. House of Leaves

Anna Burns. Milkman: a novel

Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities

Susanna Clarke. Piranesi

Sophie Roell. 10/08/2023: Notable Nonfiction of Fall 2023. Roell, a fivebooks editor/interviewer, recommends:

Tom Holland. Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age

Sarah Ruden. Vergil: The Poet's Life (Ancient Lives)

Nicholas Shakespeare. Ian Fleming: the complete Man (see also >19 featherbear:)

Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell. The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Math's Unsung Trailblazers (per Amazon, to be published in the US July 2024; keep in mind that fivebooks is British)

Sebastian Edwards. The Chile Project: The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism

Be warned that Roell is an industrious reader & recommends even more books in her notes.

Finally, books on sound recommended by the author of the forthcoming (Nov 2023 per Amazon) A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous:

Caspar Henderson, interviewed by Cal Flyn. The best books on Sound. Recommendations:

Bernie Krause. The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places

Nina Kraus. Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World

Michael Spitzer. The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth

Thomas Mann. Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend

Karen Bakker. The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants

Literary Hub, 10/09/2023: The 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction announces the shortlist for its £50,000 prize.

The nominees:

Hannah Barnes. Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children

Tania Branigan. Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution

Christopher Clark. Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848- 1849

Jeremy Eichler. Time’s Echo: The Second World War, The Holocaust, and The Music of Remembrance

Jennifer Homans. Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century

John Vaillant. Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

Tolstoy, Bram Stoker, & Stephen King:

Alexander Chee. Guernica, 10/02/2023: When Horror Is the Truth-teller.

Chris Klimek. Smithsonian, 10/02/2023: A Brief History of Banned Books in America.

"In addition to political censorship and budget cuts, libraries are being undermined by rapacious digital licensing agreements."

Brewster Kahle. Guardian, 10/09/2023: The US library system, once the best in the world, faces death by a thousand cuts.

Kate Womersley. Guardian, 10/10/2023: Eve by Cat Bohannon review – long overdue evolutionary account of women and their bodies. Review of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution / Cat Bohannon.

Michelle Orange. New Yorker, 10/09/2023: The Meaning of Madonna. Review of: Madonna: A Rebel Life / Mary Gabriel.

Dan Sinykin. The Nation, 10/10/2023: What Was Literary Fiction?

TLS, October 13, 2023|No. 6289

Featured

Regina Rini. What is woke?: The dangers of identity politics without a belief in progress. Review of: THE IDENTITY TRAP: A story of ideas and power in our time / Yascha Mounk -- LEFT IS NOT WOKE / Susan Neiman.

Philip Ball. Where there’s a will: The quest to determine whether humanity has the freedom to choose. Review of: DETERMINED: Life without free will / Robert Sapolsky -- FREE AGENTS: How evolution gave us free will / Kevin J. Mitchell.

Tim Parks. The scars of love: Elsa Morante’s urgent, exhilarating novel of falsehood and secrecy. Review of: LIES AND SORCERY / Elsa Morante; translated by Jenny McPhee.

Paul Binding. The quiet genius of Jon Fosse: ‘Intense verbal minimalism’ is the hallmark of the Nobel laureate. (Essay)

Literature

Ann Aslanyan. Down with the street kids: Writing by the Marxist-cum-Catholic enfant terrible. Review of: BOYS ALIVE / Pier Paolo Pasolini; translated by Tim Parks -- HERETICAL AESTHETICS: Pasolini on painting / Pier Paolo Pasolini; edited and translated by Ara H. Merjian and Alessandro Giammei -- THEOREM / Pier Paolo Pasolini; translated by Stuart Hood.

Alex Peake-Tomkinson. Oysters, chocolate, cream and froth: A dystopian thriller with a gastronomic bent. Review of: LAND OF MILK AND HONEY: a novel / C. Pam Zhang.

Kim Sherwood. A political hunger: The failure to address poverty in eighteenth-century France. Review of: THE GLUTTON: a novel / A.K. Blakemore.

Miranda France. Spoilt brats: A murder story of self-absorption and timeless human cruelty. Review of: THE CITY OF THE LIVING / Nicola Lagioia; translated by Ann Goldstein.

Nick Holdstock. Spin the wheel: Myth and karmic rebirth in a village in western France. Review of: THE ANNUAL BANQUET OF THE GRAVEDIGGERS' GUILD / Mathias Énard; translated by Frank Wynne.

Elizabeth Dearnley. Wishful thinking: A shy novelist is bedazzled by a mysterious lover. Review of: BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE: a novel / Anna Biller.

In Brief Review of: THE NENOQUICH / Henry Bean.

In Brief Review of: BLOOD FEATHER / Patrick McGuinness.

In Brief Review of: CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ: A California life / Cynthia L. Haven.

In Brief Review of: The Translator / Harriet Crawley.

Arts & Culture

Sophie Oliver. Dress for excess: How the Bloomsbury group expressed liberation through their clothes. Review of: BRING NO CLOTHES: Bloomsbury and the philosophy of fashion / Charlie Porter & the exhibition Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and fashion, Charleston in Lewes, East Sussex, until January 7.

Emily May. The Rite stuff: A new imagining of Les Noces. Review of the English National Ballet's OUR VOICES, Sadler’s Wells, London.

Theo Zenou. Heavy weight reading: The outsize contribution of Jewish boxers. Review of: STARS AND SCARS: The story of Jewish boxing in London / Jeff Jones.

Roger Fry. ‘Shall we wear top hats?’: A previously unpublished amusement by Roger Fry, introduced by Michael Caines.

Ian Sansom. Lasting impressions: The people who become part of us. (Essay on impressionist Mike Yarwood)

History, Politics, & Society

Elizabeth Frood. Kings and spin doctors: Pomp and propaganda in ancient Egypt. Review of: RAMESSES THE GREAT: Egypt’s king of kings / Toby Wilkinson -- A HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT: Volume Three: From the shepherd kings to the end of the Theban monarchy / John Romer.

Joe Moran. Getting personal: A New York Times columnist urges us to talk to strangers. Review of: HOW TO KNOW A PERSON: The art of seeing others deeply and being deeply seen / David Brooks.

Nat Segnit. Everyman’s war: The life and death in the trenches of Michael Palin’s great-uncle. Review of: GREAT-UNCLE HARRY: A tale of war and empire / Michael Palin.

Wendy Moore. Light in darkness: A strident, angry and funny account of blindness. Review of: LIFE UNSEEN: A story of blindness / Selina Mills.

Norma Clarke. How it really was: A BBC journalist is gripped by the papers his mother left behind. Review of: RUSKIN PARK: Sylvia, me and the BBC / Rory Cellan-Jones.

In Brief Review of: MERITS OF THE PLAGUE / Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalānī; Edited and translated by Joel Blecher and Mairaj Syed.

In Brief Review of: UN UOMO DI POCHE PAROLE: Storia di Lorenzo, che salvò Primo / Carlo Greppi.

In Brief Review of: WAR AND PUNISHMENT: The story of Russian oppression and Ukrainian resistance / Mikhail Zygar.

"The Indian authorities have charged the renowned novelist Arundhati Roy over public comments she made 13 years ago about the restive Kashmir region, the latest step in an intensifying crackdown on free speech by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ... The lieutenant governor of the Delhi region said the government had considered filing a more serious charge of sedition against Ms. Roy and Mr. Hussain in the case, which sprang from a complaint filed in October 2010 by a right-wing Kashmiri Hindu activist against speakers at a conference on Kashmir."

Sameer Yasir. NYT, 10/11/2023: India Charges Novelist Arundhati Roy Over a 2010 Speech.

"The curious origins of the Athenaeum, a library on a nondescript Midtown block that is devoted to the psychedelic experience."

Rachel Nuwer. NYT, 10/07/2023: The Quiet Reading Room That Gets Trippy After Dark.

Denis Duncan. NYT, 10/13/2023: In the Beginning Were the Word Nerds. Review of: THE DICTIONARY PEOPLE: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary / Sarah Ogilvie.

Mary Norris. New Yorker, 10/12/2023: The Edith Hamilton Way. Review of: American Classicist: The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton / Victoria Houseman.

"Written for laymen, read by women and kings, Christian Wolff’s mathematical method made him a key Enlightenment philosopher."

Michael Walschots. Aeon, 10/12/2023: The Great, Forgotten Wolff.

NYRB Online Nov. 2, 2023: 60th Anniversary Issue

Literature

Catherine Nicholson. Theater for a New Audience. Review of: Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book / Emma Smith -- Shakespeare’s Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare / Chris Laoutaris -- Shakespeare’s Syndicate: The First Folio, Its Publishers, and the Early Modern Book Trade / Ben Higgins.

Pankaj Mishra. When the Barbarians Take Over. "Uwe Wittstock’s new account of writers considering whether to flee or to remain in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power sheds light on the choices faced by many writers in India and Russia today." Review of: February 1933: The Winter of Literature / Uwe Wittstock, translated from the German by Daniel Bowles.

Hermione Lee. A Wider Devotion. Review of: The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life / Clare Carlisle.

Namwalli Serpell. ‘Such Womanly Touches.’ (Essay, with remarks on George Eliot)

Deborah Eisenberg. Virtuosos of Self-Deception. Review of: Lies and Sorcery / Elsa Morante, translated from the Italian by Jenny McPhee.

Michael Gorra. Who Are These People? Review of: The Pole: a novel / J.M. Coetzee.

Alma Guillermoprieto, translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen. Ghosts of Aracataca. (Essay: "In a series of early short stories and novellas based on his childhood memories, Gabriel García Márquez found the style, voice, and sense of place that culminate in One Hundred Years of Solitude.")

Meghan O'Gieblyn. Up All Night. Review of: Awake / Harald Voetmann, translated from the Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen -- Sublunar / Harald Voetmann, translated from the Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen.

Arts

Lucy Sante. Rhapsodies in Bop. "A recent exhibition at the Morgan showed how thoroughly at home the poet Blaise Cendrars was among visual artists." Review of Blaise Cendrars (1887–1961): Poetry Is Everything, an exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, May 26–September 24, 2023.

Simon Callow. Mozart the Modernist. Review of: Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces / Patrick Mackie.

Martin Filler. The Neotraditionalist. "The architect Robert A. M. Stern is America’s most vociferous and successful exponent of a Classicism that would be considered anachronistic in much of the rest of the world." Review of: Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture / Robert A.M. Stern with Leopoldo Villardi.

Ingrid D. Rowland. ‘A Great Glory to Wealth.’ Review of: The Villa Farnesina: Palace of Venus in Renaissance Rome / James Grantham Turner. "Like so many of the Tuscan banker Agostino Chigi’s undertakings, the Villa Farnesina burst through all the old categories—social, architectural, and cultural—for a merchant’s house."

Jed Perl. Picasso’s Transformations. Review of: Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn, exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, September 14, 2023–January 14, 2024, catalog byAnna Jozefacka with Lauren Rosati -- Picasso in Fontainebleau, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, October 8, 2023–February 17, 2024, catalog of the exhibition edited by Anne Umland with Francesca Ferrari and Alexandra Morrison -- It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, June 2–September 24, 2023 -- Picasso and the Spanish Classics, an exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, New York City, November 2, 2023–February 4, 2024 -- Andy Warhol: Thirty Are Better Than One, an exhibition at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, New York City, May 10–July 30, 2023 -- Looking at Picasso / Pepe Karmel -- Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma / Claire Dederer -- Picasso’s War: How Modern Art Came to America / Hugh Eakin.

Stacy Schiff. ‘Hallucinatory Spitballs.’ (Essay: "Arthur Miller wrote that The Crucible should not pass as a true story. Why has the play become ubiquitous in American high schools? What have we done with the actual greatest witch hunt in American history?")

Natural History & Philosophy

Martha C. Nussbaum. Where the Orcas Swim. Review of: Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling / Ryan Tucker Jones -- Superpod: Saving the Endangered Orcas of the Pacific Northwest / Nora Nickum -- Sonic Sea, a documentary film written by Mark Monroe and directed by Michelle Dougherty and Daniel Hinerfeld -- We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility / Michael J. Moore.

Politics, Society, & History

Mark Danner. The Grievance Artist. Review of: Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump / Miles Taylor -- American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation / David Rothkopf -- The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017–2021 / Peter Baker and Susan Glasser -- The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible / Luke Mogelson.

Marilynne Robinson. Dismantling Iowa. (Essay: "American higher education is premised on liberal ideals, intended to make young people independent thinkers and capable citizens. What’s happening in Iowa undermines that legacy.")

Fintan O'Toole. Defying Tribalism. Review of: Left Is Not Woke / Susan Neiman. "In her new polemic, the philosopher Susan Neiman charges her fellow leftists with intellectual betrayal and calls for a return to universal ideals of justice and humanity."

Howard W. French. China’s Foreclosed Possibilities. Review of: China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower / Frank Dikötter -- Never Turn Back: China and the Forbidden History of the 1980s / Julian Gewirtz -- Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise / Susan L. Shirk -- “Avec toi au pouvoir, je suis tranquille” = “With you in charge, I am at ease” : Hua Guofeng (1921–2008) / Stéphane Malsagne.

Timothy Garton Ash. ‘Europe Whole and Free.’ (Essay: "After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Europe looked forward to finally being whole, free, and at peace. Is that vision coming closer or receding?")

Susan Faludi. ‘Hag of Misery.’ Review of: The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime / Nicholas L. Syrett -- Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist / Jennifer Wright.

Sue Halpern. The Bull’s-Eye on Your Thoughts. Review of: The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology / Nita A. Farahany -- Reading Our Minds: The Rise of Big Data Psychiatry / Daniel Barron.

Here's one I overlooked in the July-Sept thread. Less for the recommendations, rather because of the interviewee's readerly enthusiasm:

Lesley Thomsen, interviewed by Sophie Roell, 09/20/2023: The Best Historical Fiction Set in England.

Louise Glück, 1943-2023

Clay Risen. NYT, 10/13/2023: Louise Glück, Nobel-Winning Poet Who Explored Trauma and Loss, Dies at 80. Author of: Triumph of Achilles -- Ararat -- The Wild Iris -- Poems, 1962-2012 -- Winter Recipes from the Collective -- Faithful and Virtuous Night.

Harrison Smith. WaPo, 10/13/2023: Louise Glück, lyrical poet who won Nobel Prize, dies at 80. "She received virtually all of America’s top literary honors, including a Pulitzer Prize for her 1993 collection The Wild Iris, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2020 'for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.'"

Dan Chiasson. NYRB, 10/13/2023: Louise Glück (1943–2023).

New Yorker, 10/16/2023: Louise Glück, Remembered by Writers. "Henri Cole, Elisa Gonzalez, Jiayang Fan, Katy Waldman, Kevin Young, and Hilton Als commemorate the Nobel-winning poet."

From 2021:

Kate Kellaway. Guardian, 08/31/2021: Louise Glück: Poems 1962-2020 review – a grand introduction to the Nobel prize winner.

From 2020:

Hannah Aizenmann. New Yorker, 10/09/2020: The Nobel Laureate Louise Glück in The New Yorker.

Walt Hunter. The Atlantic, 10/10/2020: The Many Beginnings of Louise Glück.

Richard Sandomir. NYT, 10/13/2023: Louise Meriwether Dies at 100; in 1970, a New, Black Literary Voice. Author of Daddy Was a Numbers Runner.

Harrison Smith. WaPo, 10/13/2023: Louise Meriwether, novelist who conjured 1930s Harlem, dies at 100.

Imani Perry. NYT Magazine, 10/13/2023: How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature.

Areeba Shah. Salon, 10/14/2023: Expert sounds alarm as Texas book bans grow: These efforts are “well-organized and well-funded.”

"Transit Books, the American publisher of Nobel Prize-winning author Jon Fosse, is the rare publishing house that literally operates out of a house."

Jacob Brogan. WaPo, 10/13/2023: This couple just published a Nobel winner from their living room.

Molly Young. NYT, 10/15/2023: The Essential Vladimir Nabokov.

Is the exclamation point the typographical equivalent of junk food?! Literary examples.

Florence Hazart. The Millions, 10/11/20232: How to Exclaim!

Matthew Pressman. WaPo, 10/15/2023: An inside look at the scandals and successes of the New York Times. Review of: The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism / Adam Nagourney.

Isa Arsén. LitHub, 10/12/2023: In Praise of Pulp Fiction: Isa Arsén on Carving Out a Home in a Bygone Genre.

Scott Feinberg. Hollywood Reporter, 10/12/2023: The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time. (By people selected by the Hollywood Reporter; with additional suggestions under each listing)

Amanda Perry. The Walrus, 10/17/2023: I Changed My Mind about Reading Problematic Male Authors.

Pamela Paul. NYT, 10/18/2023: A Chill Has Been Cast Over the Book World. Palestinian author Adania Shibli & her book Minor Detail canceled at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

LitHub, 10/17/2023: An Open Letter in Support of Adania Shibli From More Than 350 Writers, Editors, and Publishers.

Rebecca Onion. Slate, 10/17/2023: Et Tu, Scholastic Book Fair?

Rachel Treisman. Npr, 10/17/2023: U.S. book bans are taking a toll on a beloved tradition: Scholastic Book Fairs.

Adrian Horton. Guardian, 10/18/2023: Scholastic to separate books on race, gender and sexuality for book fairs.

Recently from The New Yorker:

Paul Grimstad. 10/11/2023: Confessions of an Audiobook Addict.

Ian Penman. 10/16/2023: The Stubborn Mysteries of Lou Reed. Review of: Lou Reed: The King of New York / Will Hermes.

Ian Buruma. 10/16/2023: What the Tokyo Trial Reveals About Empire, Memory, and Judgment. Review of: Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia / Gary J. Bass.

TLS October 20, 2023|No. 6290

Featured

Nigel Warburton. Slow thinking: Daniel Dennett’s evolutionary philosophy of mind. Review of: I’VE BEEN THINKING / Daniel C. Dennett.

Ruth Scurr. His three muses: A portrait of Monet’s interior life. Review of: MONET: The restless vision / Jackie Wullschläger.

Claire Lowdon. . Review of: TREMOR: a novel / Teju Cole.

Katie Stallard. Rogue state: Why it is time to stop mocking – and underestimating – North Korea. Review of: NORTH KOREA AND THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR ORDER: When bad behaviour pays / Edward Howell -- THE LAZARUS HEIST: From Hollywood to high finance – inside North Korea’s global cyber war / Geoff White -- BLACK GIRL FROM PYONGYANG: In search of my identity / Monica Macias -- THE HARD ROAD OUT: One woman’s escape from North Korea / Jihyun Park and Seh-Lynn Chai; translated by Sarah Baldwin.

Literature

Joanna Neilly. The message in a bottle: Ten tales by E. T. A. Hoffmann, master of the uncanny. Review of: THE GOLDEN POT: And other tales of the uncanny / E. T. A. Hoffmann; selected and translated by Peter Wortsman.

Anne E. Duggan. The colours of magic: Lively, intriguing reworkings of classic fairy tales. Review of: 3 books by Romer Wilson, all edited by Jack Zipes: Green Magic -- Silver Magic -- Red Magic.

Peter Filkins. High-wire act: Remembering Ingeborg Bachmann. (Essay)

Jayne Thomas. Too deep for tears: Mind, nature and God in Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode. Review of: THE INTELLIGIBLE ODE: Intimations of paradise / Graham Davidson.

Fiona Stafford. A visionary world: Trees in Wordsworth’s poetic landscape. Review of: VERSED IN LIVING NATURE: Wordsworth’s trees / Peter Dale and Brandon C. Yen.

Douglas Field. Revenants’ return: Sorrow, lyricism and memory in the work of Jesmyn Ward. Review of: LET US DESCEND / Jesmyn Ward -- JESMYN WARD: New critical essays / Sheri-Marie Harrison, Arin Keeble and Maria Elena Torres-Quevedo, editors.

Robert Potts. The art of deception: Le Carré’s biographer revisits the author’s manipulative love life. Review of: THE SECRET LIFE OF JOHN LE CARRÉ / Adam Sisman.

Mark Wickham Jones. Letter drop: A mysterious postcard from the young John le Carré. (Essay)

Mia Levitin. Grief is the thing with no illusions: Stories of mourning and intimacy. Review of: WEDNESDAY’S CHILD / Yiyun Li.

Kevin Brazil. Pure acoustic material: The human voice and the listening it creates. Review of: CANOES / Maylis de Kerangal; translated by Jessica Moore.

In Brief Review of: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO JOAN DIDION / Evelyn McDonnell.

In Brief Review of: MY WEIL / Lars Iyer. "Simone Weil comes to Manchester in Lars Iyer’s latest campus novel."

In Brief Review of: SEVENTEEN / Joe Gibson. "Written under the pseudonym Joe Gibson, Seventeen is a fictionalized narrative of a seventeen-year-old’s sexual relationship with his thirty-five-year-old teacher, “Miss P”."

Arts

Anna Aslanyan. ‘My art has no gender’: The first female artist to be given the run of the Royal Academy. Review of: MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ: A visual biography / Marina Abramović with Katya Tylevich and the exhibition MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Royal Academy of Arts, London, until January 1.

Norma Clarke. Cocking a snook: Sarah Lucas’s riposte to the tabloid objectification of women. Review of the exhibition SARAH LUCAS: Happy Gas, Tate Britain, London, until January 14.

In Brief Review of: All the President’s Men (BFI Film Classics) / Robert B. Ray and Christian Keathley.

In Brief Review of: ALL EXCEPT YOU / Roland Barthes; translated and with a commentary by Joe Milutis. "Roland Barthes’s cryptic reflections on Saul Steinberg."

Politics, Society, & Culture

Barnaby Phillips. Hating America, loving Coke: How a dark, sticky drink from Atlanta conquered Africa. Review of: BOTTLED: How Coca-Cola became African / Sara Byala.

Lindsey Hilsum. No way forwards, or back: The plight of West African migrants stuck in Niger. (Essay)

Regina Rini. Ancient wisdom: Today's politicians are not the retiring sort. (Essay)

In Brief Review of: IN SEARCH OF SHEBA / Barbara Toy. "Motoring solo through North Africa as a woman in the 1950s."

In Brief Review of: TRAVELLERS OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION: A global history of the Communist International / Brigitte Studer; translated by Dafydd Roberts.

Recently on LARB:

Rani Neutill. 10/17/2023: Prohibition and Hope: The Politics of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Writings.

Kaya Genç. 10/16/2023: Turkey’s Feminist Autofictionalist. Review of: Cold Nights of Childhood / Tezer Özlü.

Sharon Marcus. Public Books, 10/18/2023: Capitalism Alone Is Not the Problem. Review of: Birnam Wood: a novel / Eleanor Catton.

Maureen O'Connor. NYT, 10/17/2023: Barnes & Noble Sets Itself Free. "The new layouts at Barnes & Noble stores across the country put a stronger emphasis on books rather than impulse-purchase items."