Culturewatch

  First thanks Verso Books—and Colin Beckett in particular—for enabling us to reprint this piece from the forthcoming volume, edited by Tom Overton: Portraits, John Berger on Artists. Each is going to his own rest. But they are all returning to the world, and its first gift is its space; later, its second gift will … Read more

This installment of Hornick’s ongoing essay (see Part Two here) considers how serializing generates powerful effects in the Italian writer Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, the fourth and final of which will be published in English in September of this year. Taken collectively, the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante comprise a single story about the relationship … Read more

Full Communism Communism is free time and nothing else, he thought when he woke up in the morning. And when he went to sleep: predicting what life will be like under communism would be like packing for a dream. He let himself sink into his dreams like an abulic and solitary vagabond who lies down … Read more

After a grueling six preparatory weeks of the NBA Playoffs, basketball fans and Lebron James followers alike had a week off before the Finals began. After conquering the Eastern Conference, King James seemed as worn out as I felt, but one could hope that the rest would be as rejuvenative as the two week mid-season … Read more

I have a stake in Zachary Leader’s new huge first volume biography of Saul Bellow that has just appeared. Bellow was a friend and Leader gives a brief account of the exchange I had with him days before he died. When I visited, his assistant told me that Saul had not been speaking for days … Read more

What follows is the second installment in an ongoing serialized essay about two overlapping developments within modern American culture: the questionable popular demand that political leaders come “with a narrative” and, on the literary front, a general revival of approval for long serial narratives. “[B]y nightfall all the ladies are like soft teacakes with frostings … Read more

Mike Leigh’s latest work, a highly episodic “scenes from the life of the artist” film about J. M.W. Turner, begs a question that has dogged me throughout life. I have gazed dutifully upon Turner’s paintings and repeatedly wondered, “Why am I doing this?” In college, in a class called “Introduction to Modern Art” we were … Read more