Timothy Brennan begins his intellectual and political biography of Edward Said—the Palestinian American literary critic, gadfly, and largely self-appointed global diplomat—on a somber note.
“For those who want a close-up portrait of a complex society with a rich history and plenty of contradictions, My Old Home is an excellent place to begin.”
Rudyard Kipling—the Anglo Indian novelist, short story writer, and bard of the British Empire—must have known that it wasn't true when he wrote, "East is East, and West is West, and Never the twain
The “mystery” in the subtitle of this compelling biography of the media mogul, Robert Maxwell, is how and why his big body was found floating face up in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, not far fr
At the start of Alison Stine’s first novel, Road Out of Winter, the protagonist, a young woman named Wylodine (known as Wil) leaves her rural home in Ohio and sets out for California.
“In Adrift Maalouf looks back at the disastrous course that world history has taken over the past 75 or so years that has jolted humanity in all four corners of th
What’s new and especially refreshing about Diane Cook’s new novel, The New Wilderness, are the finely drawn women characters, especially Bea and Agnes, refugees from “The City,” who are ca
Start Oliver Stone’s extravagant autobiography by reading the “contents” that lists ten chapters, including “Downfall,” “Waiting for the Miracle,” “South of the Border” and “Top of the World.”
Auschwitz, Buckenwald, Bergen-Belsen: the names are familiar to readers who have taken an interest in the German concentration camps that operated from the mid-1930s until 1945, when Russian soldie
“Taylor’s memoir explores the friendship between two men who think of themselves as Jews, and who behave in ways that seem intrinsically Jewish and quintessentially New York, though one doe
The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote famously in the first sentence of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Near the end of his intimate biography of Ravi Shankar, the author, Oliver Craske, describes his first meeting with the famed sitar player, global ambassador for Indian music and culture and for mo
Robert Stone seemed to come out of nowhere when he published his first novel, A Hall of Mirror in 1967, though he had a substantial apprenticeship, including a couple of years in the famed
“This book will probably not comfort readers troubled by the present moment, but it will provide them with a clear view of a fractious past, and encourage them, in the words of the Civil Ri
“In this densely packed memoir, it’s not really the destination that matters most, but rather the journey itself that goes over very rough territory and asks probing questions about race, e
“plunge into Kushins’ uncommonly empathetic biography of the man who wrote ‘Send Lawyers, Guns and Money,’ and much more, and who contributed to the great body of American folklore and lege
In the dazzling 1915 novella, The Metamorphosis, Kafka’s anti-hero Gregor Samsa wakes one morning and finds himself turned into an insect—as punishment for incest, some critics have sugges
“K. K. brings to readers in both the East and the West indelible images of Indian life, Indian places and Indian people that will not soon be forgotten.”
Bruce Springsteen fans are like no other fans in the annals of rock ’n’ roll, though it would not be easy to describe them. They come in many shapes and sizes, and belong to different generations.
“The Women’s Suffrage Movement is for men as much as it is women. It’s for everyone, no matter what their sex, gender, ethnicity, or the color of their skin.
“I Am offers American art lovers the opportunity to discover and to relish the innovative work of a painter who deconstructed the old and constructed her own brave
Michelle Tea’s publisher, the Feminist Press, calls her a “queer countercultural icon.” She is that, indeed, and has been an icon in the queer world for decades.
History of Violence is not, as the title suggests, a big, fat tome about human aggression, brute force, and cruelty, though it describes a world in which violence shapes the life of the na
Salvador Dali wasn’t the founder of Surrealism, the cultural movement that spread from Europe to the Americas in the 20thcentury. Andre Breton was the founding father.
The crescendo for Duncan Hannah’s Twentieth-Century Boy takes place in February 1976, more than 100 pages before the end, and four years before the legendary 1980 Times Square Show when hi
Books take us hostage and transport us to times and places where we ourselves can’t go, whether it’s to a remote tropical island or to the Parthenon in ancient Greece.
Ever since it was first published in England in 1847 and in the U.S. in 1848, Jane Eyre has been a literary phenomenon, widely read, profoundly influential, and lovingly imitated.
Sherman Alexie’s compelling memoir offers a mix of poetry and prose that links emotional intimacy to a powerful narrative that will likely keep readers off balance.
In The Pen and the Brush, the versatile biographer Anka Muhlstein explores some of the complex and fascinating relationships that have existed between painters and novelists.
Denied the kind of shapely body and beautiful face that made Hollywood producers see stars, but gifted with a razor-sharp mind and a motor mouth, Joan Alexander Molinsky made the best of her talent
Teenagers who heard the Wilson brothers—better known as the Beach Boys—harmonize on their big hits, “Surfin’ Safari,” “I Get Around,” “California Girls,” and “Good Vibrations” in the early 1960s, p
The journalist, biographer, and Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield calls David Bowie a lot of names: tramp, vagabond, and “the most alien of rock artists” to name a few.
After the release of his quirky 2014 movie The Grand Budapest Hotel, director/writer Wes Anderson confessed to The Daily Telegraph in London, “I stole from Stefan Zweig,” though n
Carlo Petrini, the founder of Slow Food, the worldwide grassroots organization, and the author of Slow Food Nation, exudes so much joy, hope, and optimism in his new book that it’s hard no
