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A Biography Worthy of 'Hiroshima' Author John Hersey

John Hersey covered Hiroshima and America's race riots with empathy, courage, and profound humility. Jeremy Treglown's biography, Mr. Straight Arrow, should bring a new generation of readers to Hersey's work.

Books

Chanya Button's 'Vita & Virginia' Imprisons and Cages Virginia Woolf

Looking upon Virginia Woolf with an immature and childish creative lust, writer/director Chanya Button and co-writer Eileen Atkins reduce her to a bland literary figure in Vita & Virginia, leaving us to remember the contrarian truth.

Film

Could Marion Turner's Book on Chaucer Alter Future Scholarly Work?

From Marion Turner's work, Chaucer: A European Life, Chaucer emerges as a man who lived through intrigue, rebellions, a peasant's rising, and above all, a determination to translate.

Books

When Harper Lee Came up Short: 'Furious Hours'

Casey Cep traces Harper Lee's winding road to defeat in Furious Hours.

Books

Lanthimos' 'The Favourite' Plays with History and Our Emotional Impulsivity

Stylistically risqué, The Favourite relates to a certain type of subversive British cinema from filmmakers such as Peter Greenaway, although it is not an imitation.

Film

On Warren Zevon, the "Kurt Vonnegut of Rock Music"

Author C. M. Kushins talks with PopMatters about the complicated legacy of Warren Zevon, from crack-up to recovery and back again, and his research for Nothing's Bad Luck: The Lives of Warren Zevon.

Books

'Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom' Is as Monumental as the Man It Chronicles

Noted historian David W. Blight offers readers the fullest portrait of Frederick Douglass yet in this "biography of a voice".

Books

'All the Lives We Ever Lived' Finds Comfort in Mourning with Virginia Woolf

These days, when personal grief becomes a public performance on social media, it's heartening to have a book such as Katharine Smyth's All the Lives We Ever Lived, wherein deep introspection is given space and literature provides both solace and inspiration.

Books

'The Song Is You' Is the Sinatra Biography That’s Not a Biography

The revised and expanded version of Will Friedwald's acclaimed Sinatra book, The Song Is You, is about the music and nothing but the music.

Books

Edward Gorey, Agent of Chaos

Two recent books on screenwriter, illustrator and author Edward Gorey, Born to Be Posthumous and Gorey's Worlds, are engaging works that show that Gorey's mystique remains safely impenetrable.

Books

On 'Love and Strife', but Mostly the Strife, of Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow has won many literary awards, including the Nobel, Pulitzer, and National Book Award. Yet Zachary Leader's thorough work, The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005, a PopMatters pick, begins with Below asking himself, "Was I a man or was I a jerk?"

Books

Townes Van Zandt: 'Music, Genius, and Rage'

Townes Van Zandt's longtime road manager and producer, Harold F. Eggers, Jr., looks back on road-life with the haunted songwriter. He has more stories than most.

Books

John Berger was a Lifelong Cultural Agitator with a Valuable Point of View

Joshua Sperling's biography of John Berger is more of an art history text that's focused on specific social and political elements as they are connected through Berger's perspective.

Books

'Vice', Dick Cheney, and the Satisfaction of the Deed Itself

Adam McKay's gonzo Dick Cheney biopic satire, Vice, won't be compared to Shakespeare, but it shares the Bard's disinterest in supervillains' motivations.

Film

Why Does Natsume Sōseki Still Resonate with Readers?

Literary scholar John Nathan's biography of Natsume Sōseki puts his great accomplishments -- and many shortcomings -- in superb literary and historical context.

Books

Hayao Miyazaki's Films Help Us See Ourselves "with Eyes Unclouded"

Japanese Studies scholar Susan Napier's Miyazakiworld reveals an animation auteur with an urgent message to convey about our future -- and ourselves.

Books

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The 50 Best Albums of 2019 So Far

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

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