On irony and narrative disinterest

I continue to marvel at the difference between Ron Slate’s reading of Zoë Heller’s novel The Believers and my own. To repeat, while I hold...

Pocho

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I want to take a look at Pocho by José Antonio Villarreal, perhaps the earliest Mexican-American novel—it was pu...

Orange Prize short list

The Orange Prize short list has been announced , and once again Marilynne Robinson’s Home is a finalist. It is the only title on the list t...

The Believers

Zoë Heller, The Believers (New York: Harper, 2009). $25.99. 335 pp. The shoving match between Jewish socialists and Jewish religionists ma...

As birds will come

Early this morning, Patrick Kurp meditated on style, quoting several writers on the theme. My favorite is from Liebling: “The way you write...

A novel about the American Left

My review of Charles McCarry’s Shelley’s Heart , which I characterize as one of the best novels ever written about the American Left, is in ...

Clearance items

Passion leaves you no will to act, because it leaves you no strength to resist. Elaboration murders wit (it explains the joke). Television s...