Fredrik Backman Foils the Critics (and Me)
He understands “the impossible human experience of just trying to get through the day with everyone you love being somewhat OK at the end of it.”
Arts & Letters
Anatomical Specimens Share a Scone
Wanting answers, we create reductions: I am. She was. The administration will.
The Rise, Fall, and Uneasy Redemption of the Hit King
Kostya Kennedy’s Pete Rose is a tour de force display of journalism, top-flight writing, and excellent research. It is rich in biographical details, yet it is not meant to be a biography in the typical sense, a comprehensive cradle-to-grave account of a life. The book is more of an exploration of Pete Rose as a celebrity athlete, his rise, his fall, and how he has managed both, or how managing his failures hinges entirely on how well he can throw around the weight of his accomplishments.
The Second Life of African Art in Western Preserves
Heritage is collective, aesthetic, and performative. It is something you inherit. Whereas history, on the other hand, is authored, linear, personal. It is something you produce. Museums often allow Africans the former but not the latter. Our art is heritage; European art is history. Our works are culture; theirs are achievements.
Record an Audiobook? It Sounded So Easy….
There is one blissfully egocentric, thrilling moment: I am introduced as “the talent.” Granted, I ruin the moment by snorting and warning the sound studio team that I have never recorded anything before, let alone an entire audiobook. They nod; they are already braced for an amateur. “The talent” is…
The Civil War as America’s Second Chance
At Trenton and Independence Hall, Lincoln wondered at the willingness of our patriotic ancestors to imperil their lives for a nation that did not yet and perhaps would never exist.
Jennie C. Jones and Fred Eversley at the Pulitzer, and the Perception of a Divided Life
In a museum, we often try to understand what a painting means and where it is coming from, placing ourselves at the center of the experience. This sculpture removed me completely. I was forced to look outward instead of inward, as if I were seeing a world that existed without me.
From Luke Skywalker to Moses
The real world is filled with transformative “second chance” stories—true tales of people who at some point in their lives answer the summons of a new path.
A Historic Vice President Tells How She Played Her Party’s Gambit
Published less than a year after her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 election, 107 Days is an extraordinary feat in its turnaround time. However, in its haste to hit the shelves, there may not be enough distance in former Vice President Kamala Harris’s assessment of her campaign to truly offer the clear vision of hindsight.
The Greatest Black American Fiction Writer at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Or
Charles W. Chesnutt envied the White professional writers around him who could make a living from writing, who controlled the literary magazine market and the book publishing industry. Chesnutt gained more leverage, little enough though it was, in the White book and magazine publishing than any Black writer of his time. He never could live from his professional writing despite the acclaim he received from the White literary establishment during the heyday of his career.