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Ted Chiang's 'Exhalation' Calmly Stares Oblivion in the Face

With his second collection of short stories, Exhalation, master of existential science fiction Ted Chiang explores AI, time travel, and alternate realities with the studious eye of an anthropologist.

Books

'Good on Paper' Asks, Is Fidelity Possible?

Rachel Cantor follows A Highly Unlikely Scenario with a literary mystery about the difficulties of translating art into life and life into art.

Books

Jonathan Franzen Pulls a Convincing Authorial Disappearing Act in 'Purity'

Franzen's latest is a fulfilling if frustrating exploration of our modern identity crisis.

Books

Indecent Exposure and Christopher Beha's 'Arts & Entertainments'

This story, although not mindless, is kind of a trashy read; rather like the celebrity culture it critiques.

Books

'The Answer to Everything' Questions the Veracity of Truth

If this doesn’t get shortlisted for the Giller Prize, well, that would be just proof that the world is an unjust place.

Reviews

'On Such a Full Sea' Challenges Our Notion of Free Will, but Leaves So Much More Unchallenged

What are we willing to trade off in order to have a steady income, food on one’s plate and a house over one’s head?

Books

'The Luminaries' Is One of the Best Books of 2013

Outside the likes of Zadie Smith, we may never see such a young novelist perform such a great highwire act, and largely succeed, as Eleanor Catton has done here.

Reviews

Portrait of Paul Auster as a Young Man

Report from the Interior works as a companion volume to the 2012 autobiography Winter Journal, and both books make for quality reading back-to-back about Paul Auster’s life and insights.

Books

'& Sons' Probes the Silences in J. D. Salinger's Fallow Period

& Sons is essentially a novel about reclusiveness, and how that purifies art and distills it into something honest and real.

Books

'Save Yourself' the Trouble

Save Yourself is a novel in which nobody really does, and at the end, you’re left with the lingering feeling that life simply isn’t worth living.

Books

True Love Will Find You in 'The World of the End'

The World of the End just proves that the end of one’s life might not be the end of one’s loves, and makes you really re-think that old line from the marriage ceremony, "'till death do us part."

Books

Stephen King's Son Takes on Films and Famous Fathers in 'Double Feature'

Double Feature is a pretty good work for someone whose own upbringing had to have resembled the B-movies that he so lovingly recreates here.

Books

'Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales' Is Hardly Dark, but It Is Twisted

This is resoundingly a Japanese book, one that mutes horror in favour of character and deft prose.

Books

On Destroying the Nuclear Family: 'May We Be Forgiven'

May We Be Forgiven is a book of pathos, and yet is darkly comedic at the same time. It’s a fine line to walk, but A. M. Homes does a pretty deft job of stringing both ends together.

Books

¡Viva la Revolución(s)! 'Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes'

If anything, Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes shows an author who is willing to stretch out and expand his palette, even as he grows well into his twilight years.

Books

A Drug Wonderland as Seen Through the Eyes of a Child: 'Down the Rabbit Hole'

This debut entry into the genre of drug chic is getting all kinds of praise. I don't get it.

Books

Pop Ten

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

The 25 Best Classic Progressive Rock Albums

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 2: 80 - 61

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 4: 40 - 21

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 3: 60 - 41

MetalMatters: August 2019 - A Quiet Month to Enjoy Loud Music

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