‘Rock of Pages’ Argues for the High of Literature in the Low of Heavy Metal
Rock of Pages makes a lively case that the theatricality of 1980s heavy metal concealed a more literate imagination than its critics would admit.
literature
Video Game Storytelling Is a World-Colliding Reinvention
Whereas the novel specializes in psychological interiority, video game storytelling allows players to experiment outwardly in world-colliding fashion.
Gatsby’s Defeat and America’s Status Quo
Gatsby’s fictional legacy is a reflection of America’s all-too-real, relentless ambition, its bottomless hunger for reinvention, and its cruelty toward those who will never reach the upper class.
Alan Moore and the Great American (Graphic) Novel
The Illuminist: Philosophical Explorations in the Work of Alan Moore investigates the convictions and contradictions of the Great American (Graphic) Novel writer who is neither American nor a novelist.
Alice Munro’s Men
The late author Alice Munro’s work is criticized for its portrayal of men. But radically, not all her rejected male characters are mediocrities.
War Fever in Norman Lock’s ‘The Caricaturist’
In Norman Lock’s The Caricaturist, the characters find themselves in a fraught time of war fever just as one century dies and a new one is born.
James Baldwin Digs Into the Roots of American Music
James Baldwin’s writing about music illuminates the significance of racial slavery for all American music. Black American music can help America to move forward if used properly.
Hypochondria Sets the Rules for ‘Here Is a Game We Could Play’
Hypochondria, obsession, and confusion set the rules for a love affair in Jenny Bitner’s excellent debut novel, Here Is a Game We Could Play.
Is Louis Menand Right About the Death of Art and Thought in America?
For intellectual historian Louis Menand, the Cold War gave rise to prospects and paradoxes in America, and Art was given status through essential criticism.
‘Klara and the Sun’ Explores What Makes Us Tick
‘Klara and the Sun’ is dappled with themes of personal identity and death, in one form or another.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘Klara and the Sun’ Is a Simple Story about Complicated Things
There is nothing artificial about Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara of ‘Klara and the Sun’. That’s the tragedy and the irony of being an Artificial Friend.
Truths Overlap in Jenny Erpenbeck’s Memoir of German Reunification, ‘Not a Novel’
Living under the repressive East German regime taught its citizens to distrust their government and read through the lines of its proclamations to glean the reality of a situation, Jenny Erpenbeck explains in Not a Novel.