The catalyst for the writing of Ibn Warraq’s dissident critique, Why I Am Not A Muslim, came in 1988, when Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of British novelist Salman Rushdie. What has since euphemistically become […]
Bernard Malamud’s The Natural
by on September 20, 2016
There are, to my knowledge, two good indicators of the enduring legacy of Bernard Malamud’s first novel, The Natural. The first came in 1984, when it was adapted into a Hollywood film starring Robert Redford that still ranks among the […]
Merle Miller’s Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography Of Harry S. Truman
by on September 16, 2016
We are once again approaching the close of an American election season, distinguished for the utter disdain and distrust the citizenry have for both candidates. One applicant is thought to lie with every breath; the other is said to have […]
Adam Gopnik’s Paris To The Moon
by on August 31, 2016
In the fall of 1995, Adam Gopnik and his wife arrived in Paris, new-born son in tow, eager to explore one of the world’s most famous and romanticized cities. Gopnik, a New Yorker staff writer since the mid-’80s, succeeded in doing […]
Raymond Aron’s The Opium Of The Intellectuals
by on August 30, 2016
France in the aftermath of the Second World War was in ruins, both spiritually and physically. Nearly half a million buildings had been destroyed, with a greater number severely damaged; agricultural output was a fraction of what it had been […]
Roger Angell’s This Old Man
by on August 27, 2016
In a few short weeks, Roger Angell will turn 96. He no longer works as the fiction editor for the New Yorker, a position he held for the better part of a half-century, but he will forever be associated with […]
William Trevor’s Death In Summer
by on August 25, 2016
William Trevor is an Irish writer – “Irish in every vein” – and one of the world’s best living short story writers, worthy to be mentioned with the likes of Alice Munro. He took up writing late in life, publishing […]
Michel Houellebecq’s Submission
by on August 11, 2016
I must begin by thanking my brother Kenneth, both for recommending Submission to me and for shipping it across the Atlantic when our dismal Montreal bookstores could not furnish a copy. Michel Houellebecq was unknown to me before January of […]
Paul Berman’s Terror And Liberalism
by on August 3, 2016
Despite its meandering style, Terror And Liberalism has a very simple thesis: Islamic extremism is best understood as a fascistic political force, inspired by the great totalitarian movements of the 20th century, and much of the anti-war Left (the book […]
Victor Davis Hanson’s Mexifornia
by on July 29, 2016
If Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, one issue in particular will explain how a loud-mouthed, crass celebrity with no political experience ascended to the office once held by Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln: immigration. […]