The Fruits of Empire
The Blood of the Colony: Wine and the Rise and Fall of French Algeria by Owen White. Harvard University Press, 2021. Hardcover, 336 pages, $39.39. Reviewed by Luke Nicastro Nearly sixty years after the demise of French Algeria, both colonizer and colonized continue to...
Craftsmanship as Social and Political Endeavor
Craft: An American History. by Glenn Adamson. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. Hardcover, 400 pages. $22.50. Reviewed by Clayton Trutor Glenn Adamson’s new book has completely blown my mind. Like so many great works of history, Craft: An American History takes a seemingly...
Robert Lowell’s Selfish Determination
The Dolphin (Two Versions, 1972–1973) by Robert Lowell, edited by Saskia Hamilton. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019, Paperback, ix + 195 pages, $18. The Dolphin Letters, 1970–1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle edited by Saskia Hamilton. Farrar,...
After Such Knowledge
Sergeant Salinger: A Novel by Jerome Charyn. Bellevue Literary Press, 2021. Hardcover, 288 pages, $28.50. Reviewed by Carl E. Rollyson Biographical novels trouble certain readers. What is true? What is made up? Why isn’t biography enough? Why not just read Salinger,...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!