https://www.nybooks.com en-US Mon, 17 Aug 2026 11:27:44 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/16/insincerity-case-maddies-secret-john-early/ I often like John Early’s work. I love John Early’s taste. I came to one of my favorite movies, the bracing, pensive 1990 Canadian docudrama Strangers in Good Company, after he hosted a screening of it at New York’s Metrograph in 2021. On both TV and film, he’s regularly cast as frustrated and venal divas […]]]> Daniel M. Lavery Sun, 16 Aug 2026 06:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/16/insincerity-case-maddies-secret-john-early/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/15/from-the-horses-mouth-lisa-hanawalt/ “Punwise, I didn’t feel too reined in on BoJack. If I was champing at the bit to use a joke somewhere, I could usually find a place to trot it out!”]]> Lisa Hanawalt, Leanne Shapton Sat, 15 Aug 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/15/from-the-horses-mouth-lisa-hanawalt/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/14/what-does-a-puta-want-putafeminism/ In 1984, the year before Brazil transitioned from a military dictatorship to a tenuous democracy, a young woman named Gabriela Leite attended a national meeting for sex workers held by a progressive ministry of the Catholic Church. There she shocked those assembled by taking the microphone and unabashedly calling herself a prostitute. As she recalled […]]]> Meg Weeks Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/14/what-does-a-puta-want-putafeminism/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/13/the-silent-art-kate-millett/ Kate Millett would never be more active or more in demand than she was in 1972. Two summers earlier, her debut book had made her a household name. Begun as her thesis for a literature Ph.D., Sexual Politics swelled into a wide-ranging examination of sex as a terrain of political contest and patriarchy as a […]]]> Sam Huber Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/13/the-silent-art-kate-millett/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/12/jerry-survives/ As an artist in the second half of the twentieth century, Jerry Moriarty did everything you weren’t supposed to do: he painted people, he painted places, and, perhaps worst of all, he told stories with pictures. It’s important to note how not-accepted this was between the 1950s and 1970s, in the messy aftermath of abstract […]]]> Chris Ware Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:47:57 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/12/jerry-survives/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/11/the-profiler-rachel-syme/ It seems as though Rachel Syme has interviewed all the grandes dames of New York and Los Angeles. She drank cosmopolitans with Carol Burnett, accompanied Sarah Jessica Parker to the ballet, shopped at Rachel Comey with Parker Posey, gabbed with Patti LuPone over Skype, and gabbed with Barbra Streisand on a landline. At a time […]]]> Merve Emre, Rachel Syme Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/11/the-profiler-rachel-syme/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/08/the-road-to-the-rent-freeze/ On the evening of June 25, minutes after New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze the rent for a million rent-stabilized apartments across the five boroughs, I caught up with a tenant I know named Josie Wells. Standing outside the auditorium in East Harlem where the vote had just occurred, we spoke about […]]]> Tara Raghuveer Sat, 08 Aug 2026 13:22:29 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/08/the-road-to-the-rent-freeze/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/05/libya-the-dangerous-gamble/ On my last visit to Tripoli, this past June, the city often felt as if it had left the protracted conflicts of Libya’s post-Qaddafi era behind. At night, families were out in the streets catching a respite from the heat of the day. The occasional blasts were not gunfire but fireworks at wedding celebrations. Incoming […]]]> Wolfram Lacher Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:17:16 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/05/libya-the-dangerous-gamble/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/04/listening-for-the-unconscious-orna-guralnik/ “Couples therapy”—the words alone are enough to send many people running. But Orna Guralnik, the clinical psychologist and star of Showtime’s documentary series Couples Therapy, has people running to her office. She has become a household name as well as a watchful guide for couples as they navigate intimate and sometimes agonizing discussions, and for […]]]> Merve Emre, Orna Guralnik Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/04/listening-for-the-unconscious-orna-guralnik/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/01/moving-mountains-sonam-wangchuk/ On the morning of Monday, July 20, as the monsoon session of India’s parliament opened, tens of thousands of protesters surged down the radial streets leading to the heart of official New Delhi. Most of them were young people marching in response to a call issued by Sonam Wangchuk, a well-known climate activist, to bring […]]]> Jonathan Mingle Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:04:36 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/08/01/moving-mountains-sonam-wangchuk/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/31/homer-vs-hollywood-discussing-christopher-nolans-odyssey/ In this special hour-long edition of NYRSeminars, Daniel Mendelsohn, Editor-at-Large of The New York Review and author of the most recent translation of Homer’s epic, discusses Christopher Nolan’s polarizing blockbuster adaptation of the Odyssey.]]> Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:08:47 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/31/homer-vs-hollywood-discussing-christopher-nolans-odyssey/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/a-taste-of-infinity-dylan-mattingly/ With his commitment to impractical and borderline impossible projects, the composer Dylan Mattingly has created a welcoming, abundant, sun-drenched musical landscape.]]> Matthew Aucoin Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/a-taste-of-infinity-dylan-mattingly/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/explosions-in-the-mind-francisco-de-zurbaran/ Fusing religious subjects with unerring technique, the Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán discovered a zone in oil paint that might well be called “sacred."]]> Julian Bell Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/explosions-in-the-mind-francisco-de-zurbaran/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/home-invasions-look-what-you-made-me-do-john-lanchester/ In John Lanchester’s novel Look What You Made Me Do, a couple’s private language is weaponized against them.]]> Laura Marsh Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/home-invasions-look-what-you-made-me-do-john-lanchester/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/where-the-meanings-are-fairfield-porter/ Fairfield Porter was an insider among the East Coast elite, but his own portraits of life in Southampton and Maine give the charming impression of an outsider looking in.]]> Dan Chiasson Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/where-the-meanings-are-fairfield-porter/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/the-grand-master-of-abjection-coco-fusco/ Pope.L, best known for his performance art, also made drawings and paintings animated by his sense of the absurd and his concern for the marginalized.]]> Coco Fusco Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/the-grand-master-of-abjection-coco-fusco/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/along-the-ucayali-river-sara-flores/ Sara Flores adapts the ancient designs of the Shipibo-Conibo tribe of Peru into large, pattern-based paintings.]]> Gabriella Angeleti Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/along-the-ucayali-river-sara-flores/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/out-of-the-rubble-wolfgang-koeppen/ In novels written immediately after World War II, Wolfgang Koeppen mined the conscience of Germany.]]> Deborah Eisenberg Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/out-of-the-rubble-wolfgang-koeppen/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/fridas-for-everyone-frida-kahlo/ The face that sold a million mugs returned to museums and the operatic stage this spring, as if there was a yearning to reconnect with the real Frida Kahlo.]]> Alma Guillermoprieto Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/fridas-for-everyone-frida-kahlo/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/a-gust-from-another-world-the-search-for-bridey-murphy/ The Search for Bridey Murphy caused a sensation in 1950s America, and while its tale of reincarnation was soon discredited, it revealed a deep cultural fascination with the supernatural.]]> Geoffrey O’Brien Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/a-gust-from-another-world-the-search-for-bridey-murphy/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/blueprint-elizabeth-metzger/ Some friends call mine a spiritual problemand when they doI become the minister of the realand go on Zillowmoving my future into various crannies of Los Angeles.When one friend calls returning homemore practical,I find myself in our yardunder a colander of stars, tastingpasta I might never make againthe way he likes it, nakedwith flake-salt and […]]]> Elizabeth Metzger Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/blueprint-elizabeth-metzger/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/the-nightjar-rowan-ricardo-phillips/ The nightjar carries it lightlyBut the world’s heavy as a lamp in a gale.I watched it move through the olives and the hush,Over rooftops, stones, and cragged hills,Unclenched as it glistens in the gloam,Indifferent, sonorous, and true. As I write, a fly has drownedIn my jar of pungent lit wax,Its carcass still dancing from its […]]]> Rowan Ricardo Phillips Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/the-nightjar-rowan-ricardo-phillips/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/zoom-anne-carson/ Waiting for a call that didn’t happen I am sitting on the back porch with Frank O’Hara (Collected) when a goldfinch lands beside my head on the porch rail, lands so neatly so instantly so whoosh with all his yellowness yellowing and all his himness packed to the brim of him that a wave of […]]]> Anne Carson Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/zoom-anne-carson/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/refusing-to-look-away-killing-spree-jorie-graham/ In Killing Spree, the poet Jorie Graham pursues an essentially ethical impulse to find a true language for the evil in the world.]]> Anahid Nersessian Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/refusing-to-look-away-killing-spree-jorie-graham/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/whose-party-democratic-socialists-of-america/ As Democratic Socialists rack up primary victories, the moderate wing of the Democratic Party looks increasingly out of touch.]]> Michael Greenberg Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/whose-party-democratic-socialists-of-america/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/trumps-constitutional-dictatorship-regime-change-haberman-swan/ Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s inside account of the Trump administration portrays a president with a vast appetite for power but who repeatedly backs down when the costs of his actions become too high.]]> Mark Danner Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/trumps-constitutional-dictatorship-regime-change-haberman-swan/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/jackie-robinsons-worst-nightmare/ To the Editors: In Andrew Katzenstein’s review of A.M. Gittlitz’s Metropolitans [NYR, June 25] he writes that Jackie Robinson was “a loyal Republican until Barry Goldwater’s nomination in 1964.” This is an exaggeration. Robinson was a Republican-leaning independent, whose main issue was always the advancement of the cause of civil rights and full Black citizenship. […]]]> Peter Eisenstadt Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/jackie-robinsons-worst-nightmare/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/language-is-the-medium/ To the Editors: I read Dan Chiasson’s reflections on AI [“Think for Yourself,” NYR, June 25] with sympathy and interest, and thought the statement he issued to his students was absolutely first class. If I were still in the teaching game I would set it in front of my classes, too (with my fingers crossed […]]]> Richard Lansdown Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/language-is-the-medium/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/29/take-that-phony-dream-and-burn-it-death-of-a-salesman/ Just a few weeks before Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, President Harry Truman elaborated his “Fair Deal” for the American people in his State of the Union address. “We have rejected the discredited theory that the fortunes of the Nation should be in the hands of a […]]]> Alisa Solomon Wed, 29 Jul 2026 12:49:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/29/take-that-phony-dream-and-burn-it-death-of-a-salesman/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/28/people-want-to-be-heard-sarah-stillman/ Sarah Stillman is a staff writer at The New Yorker and one of the most decorated investigative reporters of her generation. She has won several National Magazine Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, and a MacArthur “Genius” Grant. Her work draws attention to the men and women forced to do the bidding of the American security state—the […]]]> Merve Emre, Sarah Stillman Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/28/people-want-to-be-heard-sarah-stillman/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/close-calls-us-supreme-court-david-cole/ In the Supreme Court’s recently concluded term, it showed that it is willing to constrain Trump but less willing to accept limits on its own authority.]]> David Cole Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2026/08/20/close-calls-us-supreme-court-david-cole/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/26/life-on-the-list/ Late one night in May 2016, Naif al-Qaysi was riding shotgun in an old Landcruiser as it barreled down an empty highway through the desert connecting Saudi Arabia and Yemen. For the past six months Naif, then thirty-three, had been the governor of Al-Bayda, a large mountainous region in central Yemen, which he was trying […]]]> Caitlin L. Chandler Sun, 26 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/26/life-on-the-list/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/25/all-of-life-joe-dunthorne/ In the Review’s June 25 issue, Joe Dunthorne writes about a recent oral history of the New York School poets and poses himself a challenge: “How to analyze a poetics of irreverence and improvisation—of life experienced in a perpetual present—without stifling precisely these qualities?” His essay suggests that the poetry in the scene, by writers […]]]> Joe Dunthorne, Aleander Santos Sat, 25 Jul 2026 10:30:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/25/all-of-life-joe-dunthorne/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/25/the-woman-question/ In 2015, I was on a panel at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design titled “Do We Need Exhibitions Just for Women?” As I remember, most of the participants agreed that we did, though some expressed concerns about ghettoization or weariness at having a conversation they’d had many times before. As the youngest participant, […]]]> Jillian Steinhauer Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/25/the-woman-question/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/24/secondhand-memory/ In 1954, with the ending of French colonial rule in Southeast Asia, the Geneva Accords established Laos as an independent state, led by the Royal Lao government. Five years later, however, the Pathet Lao, backed by the communist government of North Vietnam, initiated a civil war that escalated, along with the Vietnam War, until 1975. […]]]> Jean Dykstra Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:50:30 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/24/secondhand-memory/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/23/target-practice-israel-artificial-intelligence/ In April 2024 international news sources circulated a video of a talk delivered by a senior Israeli military official during a tech conference at Tel Aviv University about a year earlier. The speaker, whose face is not shown, introduces himself only as “Colonel Yoav,” the head of data science and AI for Unit 8200, an […]]]> Sophia Goodfriend Thu, 23 Jul 2026 10:05:33 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/23/target-practice-israel-artificial-intelligence/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/22/anthony-roth-costanzo-reads-a-little-iliad/ This episode is a reading of Daniel Mendelsohn’s review of the film Troy, an adaptation of the Iliad, from the Review’s June 24, 2004, issue. It is read by the countertenor and opera director Anthony Roth Costanzo. Among many other roles, Costanzo has performed as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Akhnaten in Philip Glass’s […]]]> Daniel Mendelsohn, Anthony Roth Costanzo Wed, 22 Jul 2026 13:49:23 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/22/anthony-roth-costanzo-reads-a-little-iliad/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/22/gazas-deadly-soil/ Long before October 2023, Gaza’s people suffered international sanctions, a humiliating occupation, and periodic Israeli bombardments. Few could leave the enclave, even for medical care; the destruction of crucial infrastructure meant that clean water and electricity were intermittent; and thousands of men, women, and children were killed in periodic wars. Even peaceful protests were met […]]]> Helen Epstein Wed, 22 Jul 2026 12:55:44 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/22/gazas-deadly-soil/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/21/consulting-the-oracle-sheila-heti/ In the fall of 2022, I saw the novelist Sheila Heti give a presentation on her conversations with early AI chat bots. Their names were Eliza, Alice, and George, and they had wild, undisciplined opinions about art, selfhood, and God. Talking to them seemed to come naturally to Heti. For several years, she had been […]]]> Merve Emre, Sheila Heti Tue, 21 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/21/consulting-the-oracle-sheila-heti/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/20/the-dnc-against-itself/ “Democracy is a very old institution,” explains the Democratic National Committee’s autopsy of the 2024 election, belatedly released in May. “And yet what keeps democracy going is the ability of those who seek to lead to look at the data and determine the source of success as well as setbacks.” The report that followed did […]]]> Daniel Schlozman Mon, 20 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/20/the-dnc-against-itself/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/19/the-war-of-the-south-iran/ Each of Iran’s recent wars has been quick to acquire a name. On the day Israel stopped bombing Iran in June 2025, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to declare the conflict over and, to nobody’s surprise, place himself at the center of the story. “I would like to congratulate both Countries,” he said, “Israel […]]]> Amir Ahmadi Arian Sun, 19 Jul 2026 07:00:00 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/19/the-war-of-the-south-iran/ https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/18/so-called-international-law-trump-icc/ On July 13 Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a campaign to destroy the International Criminal Court. Calling the ICC “a global tribunal staffed by unelected globalist bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited,” he charged the court with “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles but with statutes, compacts, […]]]> Aryeh Neier Sat, 18 Jul 2026 14:04:14 -0400 https://www.nybooks.com/online/2026/07/18/so-called-international-law-trump-icc/