Open Letters Blogs:Read from our daily blogs
Arts & Life

fine art, theater, film, music, science, nature

Features

second glance, absent friends, it’s a mystery, peer review, etc.

Fiction

criticism, belles-lettres

Poetry

criticism, new poems

Politics & History

history, politics, current events

Bad Books, Good Hooks Bad Books, Good Hooks

They don’t work as books, but they do work their way on us – insistently, insidiously. We throw them across the room, but we keep picking them up again.

Katie Caron on Dominium Katie Caron on Dominium

“It is so easy to create illusions with film, but how can you create an engrossing visual experience with an object? I am obsessed with human nature’s interest in being fooled.”

The Sweetness of Short Novels The Sweetness of Short Novels

Doorstop literary tomes might still be the preferred signature grab for literary respectability, but short novels have always been every bit as compelling–and tougher to do well. Ingrid Norton introduces her Year with Short Novels.

A Year with Short Novels: J.L. Carr’s Chance for Renewal A Year with Short Novels: J.L. Carr’s Chance for Renewal

In A Month in the Country, J.L. Carr explores that most challenging emotion to capture in fiction: happiness

All the Sad Young Bankers All the Sad Young Bankers

Two new novels by Adam Haslett and Jonathan Dee attempt to show us the way we live now by exposing the quality of the characters who handle (or, as the case may be, mishandle) our money.

The Man and the Monument The Man and the Monument

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 was peaceful, orderly, and above all sensible, or so says towering Victorian historian Thomas Babington Macaulay. Two new books look at the man and the Revolution he so indelibly described.

Everywhere There’s Georgia Everywhere There’s Georgia

“opium” Georgias, “hotwired” Georgias, and “mercury” Georgias, are cataloged and blasted in Andrew Zawacki’s new collection Petals of Zero / Petals of One. But who or what or where is Georgia’s eponym?

Playing the Shadow Game Playing the Shadow Game

Since the days of T.E. Lawrence, reporters have been providing the West with carefully-wrought (or overwrought) tales of the Middle East. A new book comments on the excesses–and maybe commits a few too.

On the Fifth of November On the Fifth of November

“Whoever devotes himself to decency and to virtue /
he beguiles with deceptions, corrupting their temptingly innocent hearts….”

David R. Slavitt on Young John Milton David R. Slavitt on Young John Milton

Long before he wrote some of the most powerful poems in English, John Milton, as a brainy teenager, wrote verse in Latin. Celebrated translator David Slavitt tells us a little about them.

Welcome to Highsmith Country Welcome to Highsmith Country

When Patricia Highsmith was bored at parties, she would cover the dinner table with her pet snails. As Joan Schenkar shows in her new biography The Talented Miss Highsmith, this may have been the sweetest part of her personality.

The Creation, and Erasure, of Laura The Creation, and Erasure, of Laura

Dmitri Nabokov published The Original of Laura in the form in which his father had left it: in note-cards, which you can remove, rearrange, annotate, even add to…

Wayward Directions Wayward Directions

In Joshua Ferris’ The Unnamed, Tim Farnsworth walks away from his job and family, and also away from a novel of domesticity into one of ideas.

Dysentery and Other Childhood Memories Dysentery and Other Childhood Memories

If names like “Number Muncher,” “The Oregon Trail,” and of course “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” prompt nostalgic smiles for you, you’ll love this affectionate look at educational video games

Real Fake Flowers Real Fake Flowers

Karl Parker’s moves are more than merely clever: I-less one minute, present & friendly the next, he darts behind masks and speaks IN BOLD, as our contributing editor discovers in her review.

Laughin’ Louis Laughin’ Louis

In the first half of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong and Sugar Ray Robinson both rose to greatness that reached across racial divides. Two new books look at the prices they had to pay.

It’s A Mystery: “Sometimes the fake relics are more valuable than the real.” It’s A Mystery: “Sometimes the fake relics are more valuable than the real.”

Lou Berney in his fast and funny debut novel, Gutshot Straight, owes more than a little to Elmore Leonard, in the best of all possible ways. As for Elmore Leonard’s latest, Road Dogs, the master is in top form.

Coming Out of the Room Coming Out of the Room

Stuart Weisberg’s biography of Barney Frank may be scattered and incomplete, but it’s got one huge saving grace: Frank’s own witticisms on nearly every page.

World Without End, Amen World Without End, Amen

Mary Caponegro continues her chronicle of troubled intimacies in the story collection All Fall Down