It’s Okay to Like Good Art by Bad People
Art transcends the artist.
Book Review
A Biting Satire About the Idealistic Left
Eleanor Catton’s new novel, Birnam Wood, pokes at the pieties of those who want to change the world.
The Pornography Paradox
Reformers fear that ever more outré sites are warping users’ desires. But transgression has always been part of the appeal.
‘Notice All That Disappears’
Jorie Graham is a poet facing down the end of the world.
Is Silicon Valley Beyond Redemption?
A new book argues that the region has been hopelessly poisoned by profit. Is there a way to reform it?
America’s Most Insidious Myth
It’s time to challenge our country’s dangerous obsession with self-reliance.
A Novel That Probes the Line Between Justice and Revenge
The narrator in Rebecca Makkai’s novel I Have Some Questions for You has a healthy skepticism of true crime—but a decades-old murder pulls her in deep.
The Oscars’ Incredible Knack for Being Wrong
Despite a history of embarrassment, the Academy has somehow managed to hold on to its prestige.
A Novel in Which Nightmares Are All Too Real
The Argentine writer Mariana Enriquez shows how violence can haunt and destabilize a civilization.
The Family Who Tried to End Racism Through Adoption
Bob and Sheryl Guterl saw their family as a kind of “ark for the age of the nuclear bomb” and attempted to gather “two of every race.”