This is turning out to be a great season for actresses. Following Christine Ebersole’s acclaimed performance in Grey Gardens comes the hilarious Julie White in The Little Dog Laughed, now transferred happily from Off Broadway to the Cort Theatre. As Douglas Carter Beane’s super-agent with a heart of stone, Ms. White is giving one of Read More
New York Times critic Margo Jefferson has written a risky little book on Michael Jackson. “Risky” because, at 146 pages, it avails itself of none of the satisfactions of a proper biography, instead asking us to cough up $20 for the quality of Ms. Jefferson’s thoughts and opinions alone. Also risky because, arriving less than Read More
The other night, I watched an episode of Over There, a new television drama about the war in Iraq. Afterward, I happened to read an article reporting that ABC was about to start filming a miniseries based on the 9/11 Commission Report—in fact, Thomas Kean, the chairman of the commission, and several of its members Read More
The American Classics: A Personal Essay, by Denis Donoghue. Yale University Press, 295 pages, $27.
Rapping the knuckles of the American classics is good fun-especially if it’s done with a light, sharp touch. And nobody gets hurt, certainly not the great dead white males themselves, who ascended to their exalted position precisely because, as Denis Read More
Lots of lurid stories have been written about how hard it is
to get into college these days. Excuse me, but when I was applying to schools a
generation ago, Harvard wasn’t exactly giving away free cruises or tote bags to
anyone who would consider spending the following four years in the frozen
wastes of Read More
