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Trump in a Toga? On the Lessons (or Lack Therof) in Historical Fiction
Picture it: a popular demagogue seizes power from the democratically elected government of a vast and prosperous, but also dysfunctional and corrupt republic. Realizing they have been reduced to a...
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Independent Bookstore as Essential Political Act
I was recently in San Francisco’s Mission District with an hour to kill. In general I hate having to kill time—I never know what to do—and to make things worse I was tired and just wanted to be home...
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From Mukasonga to Alexievich, We Need Writers Who Bear Witness
“I’ve often said it was the genocide of Rwanda’s Tutsis in 1994 that made me a writer.” These are the words of author Scholastique Mukasonga, a Tutsi who lost 27 family members—including her mother and...
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On the Books We Read (and Write) to Get By
Two years ago, a good friend of mine lost her adult son. He was a beautiful young man full of life, energy, and potential, and then in one sudden moment he was gone. How is it possible to overcome the...
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We Need the Lives of Others Now More Than Ever
I cannot tell you how much I depend on Tony Judt these days. When it came to 20th-century Europe, Judt was without peer. He illuminated the rise of fascism, the triumph of democracy, why the right took...
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Why is One Hundred Years of Solitude Eternally Beloved?
Earlier this year I made my first visit to Colombia. During my stay, I became familiar with many of the emblems around which this wonderful nation’s image revolves. There is of course the coffee, some...
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To Catch the Conscience of the President: On the Power of Theater
Just days after I completed and submitted this column, an enormous controversy broke out over The Public Theater’s staging of William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, which dramatizes the...
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Who Will Tell the Tales of American Fascism?
Picture it: three mild-mannered academics are having dinner together in London. They’re literary scholars who have deeply bonded over a shared love for an obscure author. The conversation turns to...
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How the Witchcraft of Clarice Lispector Saved My Life
The story of a woman eating a cockroach—it may not sound like the most inspiring thing in the world, but this book saved my life. I worked for a corporation, and every day at lunch I would take this...
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On the Redemptive Generosity of Artistic Communities
Earlier this summer I interviewed my friend and colleague Daniel Hahn, who had just given away £12,500—roughly $16,500. That’s a lot of money, and Danny is not a wealthy man. He’s a literary...
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The Secret E-Book That Changed My Life
I’ve only purchased two ebooks in my whole life. I don’t like to do my reading on devices, and in fact I’ll do almost anything to avoid reading a book electronically. I love the feel of having a...
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American Xenophobia: Each Generation Must Write the Wrongs of History
Shortly before the birth of Christ, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus took a moment to reflect on a practice that was still not very widespread in the Western world, yet one that he had concluded...
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How the Oldest Stories Can Give Us the Best Perspective
An oddly postmodern thing happens right near the beginning of Virgil’s ancient classic the Aeneid. Having fled Troy in defeat from the Greeks, and destined to found the great Roman civilization, a...
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Trapped in an Abusive Relationship with the United States of America
For several days after Stephen Paddock perpetuated the worst mass shooting in the history of the United States, I would start my morning off by crying. The tears would just well up from no particular...
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In California, Visions of Defiance and Grace
When I started this column a few weeks after Donald Trump had been elected our 45th President, I knew that something had gone drastically wrong with our politics, but I couldn’t then grasp how this...
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Why is One Hundred Years of Solitude Eternally Beloved?
Earlier this year I made my first visit to Colombia. During my stay, I became familiar with many of the emblems around which this wonderful nation’s image revolves. There is of course the coffee, some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To Catch the Conscience of the President: On the Power of Theater
Just days after I completed and submitted this column, an enormous controversy broke out over The Public Theater’s staging of William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, which dramatizes the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who Will Tell the Tales of American Fascism?
Picture it: three mild-mannered academics are having dinner together in London. They’re literary scholars who have deeply bonded over a shared love for an obscure author. The conversation turns to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How the Witchcraft of Clarice Lispector Saved My Life
The story of a woman eating a cockroach—it may not sound like the most inspiring thing in the world, but this book saved my life. I worked for a corporation, and every day at lunch I would take this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On the Redemptive Generosity of Artistic Communities
Earlier this summer I interviewed my friend and colleague Daniel Hahn, who had just given away £12,500—roughly $16,500. That’s a lot of money, and Danny is not a wealthy man. He’s a literary...
View Article