In his surrealist fiction, Donald Antrim likes to send up human failing, nudging the anxieties of flawed, hyper-aware characters into the realm of the absurd. His neurotic protagonists want to be liked, despite their own misanthropy. And their impulses—whether they involve torturing and murdering a little girl ( Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World) Read More
In his surrealist fiction, Donald Antrim likes to send up human failing, nudging the anxieties of flawed, hyper-aware characters into the realm of the absurd. His neurotic protagonists want to be liked, despite their own misanthropy. And their impulses—whether they involve torturing and murdering a little girl (Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World) or Read More
“Everyone in my family tells this story, but everyone starts it in a different way.” That’s how Rich Cohen begins his own story about Sweet’N Low, the artificial sweetener developed by his grandfather, Benjamin Eisenstadt, in 1957. It turns out that the iconic condiment, with its pink packet and 50-year-old musical logo, has a sordid Read More
“Everyone in my family tells this story, but everyone starts it in a different way.” That’s how Rich Cohen begins his own story about Sweet’N Low, the artificial sweetener developed by his grandfather, Benjamin Eisenstadt, in 1957. It turns out that the iconic condiment, with its pink packet and 50-year-old musical logo, has a sordid Read More
Black Hole, by Charles Burns. Pantheon, 368 pages, $24.95.
Journalists have been heralding the rise of the graphic novel for decades. Ever since Will Eisner published A Contract with God in 1978, the adult comic book has hovered on the scene, always imminent, occasionally praised as a serious art form—as in the case of Art Read More
