Chuck Palahniuk's planned 'Fight Club' sequel

I know this because Tyler knows this: ‘Fight Club’ doesn’t need a sequel

Fight Club allegorized Generation X’s bone-deep dissatisfaction with ourselves. We never thought we’d buy into the Ikea lifestyle, but we have, hook, line, and sinker.

Paula Berman

Aug 19, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

Allen Ginsberg, 'Selected Poems'

Best of the Beats

It is fashionable and therefore easy to appreciate "Howl," but this volume, however inconsistent, is filled with gems that belong in the western canon.

Michael Lawrence

Jul 27, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

Paul Auster’s ‘Report from the Interior’

Is autobiography actually possible?

Paul Auster’s new volume of memoirs raises the question of whether one can know one’s own self — and whether there is actually a self to be known.

Robert Zaller

Jun 30, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

Kevin Birmingham and Maya Lang at the Free Library

Celebrating Bloomsday and all things 'Ulysses'

Two authors and the most conflicted fans in literature celebrate James Joyce's Ulysses.

John Simons

Jun 30, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

Linda Brendle's 'Long and Winding Road'

When reality is more inspiring than "reality"

Everyone seems to write a memoir these days, and the authors are often famous entertainers or the survivors of a well-publicized crisis. Linda Brendle is an “ordinary” person, which is part of the reason her book resonates so deeply.

Maria Thompson Corley

Jun 29, 2014 · Articles · 4 minute read

Bill Watterson: An introvert's appreciation

Happy birthday, Mr. Watterson, wherever you are

When Bill Watterson worked on Calvin and Hobbes, he had no need (and even less desire) to leave the house seeking acclaim or inspiration. Everything he needed was inside his own head.

Roz Warren

Jun 14, 2014 · Articles · 3 minute read

Andrew J. Bacevich's 'Breach of Trust'

The great betrayal

In Breach of Trust, career officer turned political scientist Andrew J. Bacevich traces the woes of today’s military, and much of our politics as well, to the volunteer army instituted after Vietnam. Is a return to the draft a solution?

Robert Zaller

Jun 07, 2014 · Articles · 6 minute read

'An Officer and a Spy' by Robert Harris

A retelling of the Dreyfus affair

The Dreyfus affair, as presented by novelist Robert Harris in An Officer and a Spy, raises issues around secrecy and spying that still resonate today.

Armen Pandola

May 17, 2014 · Articles · 4 minute read

'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail Bulgakov

Sympathy for the devil?

Mikhail Bulgakov dealt with the twinned madnesses of Stalinism and his expectation of a short life through the full, flailing exercise of will, intelligence, and faith.

Bob Levin

Apr 18, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' by James Agee and Walker Evans

Let Us Now Praise James Agee

This is a book of stunning honesty and self-awareness and inspired observation. Its humanity is as blinding and magnificent and humble as its prose is magesterial.

Bob Ingram

Mar 06, 2014 · Articles · 5 minute read