I hadn’t expected to find a Truman Capote connection. Not to the Bobby Kennedy assassination. It was one of a number of surprising aspects of the case I came upon after being prompted to revisit it by Bobby, the fictionalized film about events at the Ambassador Hotel the day R.F.K. was shot there.
I really Read More
Let’s just do it. Let’s get it over with. For better or worse. It can’t be as bad as some suppose. It might turn out to be better than we could imagine. Let’s bow to the inevitable. Let’s make Hillary President.
As I write, the votes for the midterm election haven’t been counted, but Read More
Let’s just do it. Let’s get it over with. For better or worse. It can’t be as bad as some suppose. It might turn out to be better than we could imagine. Let’s bow to the inevitable. Let’s make Hillary President.
As I write, the votes for the midterm election haven’t been counted, but whatever Read More
I credit the “emo flu.” If I hadn’t been stricken by this strange affliction going around, I wouldn’t have taken to bed with a pile of spy novels and emerged determined to convince you that Philip Kerr is the contemporary master of the morally complex thriller.
But first, a word about this flu. It was Read More
This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal? And it’s always particularly enjoyable to catch a lofty academic acting no better than a Grub Street schemer, concealing his self-interest—and his half-baked theories—behind a scrim of academic hauteur and scholarly condescension.
Columbia Professor James Shapiro, come on down!
Although Read More
This is going to be fun. I mean, don’t you love a little literary scandal? And it’s always particularly enjoyable to catch a lofty academic acting no better than a Grub Street schemer, concealing his self-interest—and his half-baked theories—behind a scrim of academic hauteur and scholarly condescension.
Columbia Professor James Shapiro, come on down! Read More
Me and Bob: On the one hand, you could say that the conflict I’m about to describe proves that everything goes back to high school. On the other, you could look at it from the perspective of the centuries-old debate in Western culture between scientism and humanism—or rationality vs. anarchy.
But I like to describe Read More
Me and Bob: On the one hand, you could say that the conflict I’m about to describe proves that everything goes back to high school. On the other, you could look at it from the perspective of the centuries-old debate in Western culture between scientism and humanism—or rationality vs. anarchy.
But I like to Read More
O.K., here’s my idea: Maybe it’s time for Bob Dylan to shift from writing more songs to writing more books. Chronicles, the first volume of his memoirs, was brilliant; Modern Times, the new album, a wildly overhyped disappointment. I don’t want him to stop singing and playing, just spend more time writing Chronicles-level prose rather Read More
O.K., here’s my idea: Maybe it’s time for Bob Dylan to shift from writing more songs to writing more books. Chronicles, the first volume of his memoirs, was brilliant; Modern Times, the new album, a wildly overhyped disappointment. I don’t want him to stop singing and playing, just spend more time writing Chronicles-level prose rather Read More
