Much ink has been spilled since 2016 on the subject of liberalism’s demise, but nothing I have yet read surpasses Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed (2018) in insightfulness or force of argument. In measured language, and with requisite restraint, Deneen […]
Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea
Every new foray I make into the works of Yukio Mishima, Japan’s worst-kept literary secret, expands my appreciation for him as a writer of great conviction. He was a man at odds with his time, a vocal critic of post-war […]
William Ophuls’ Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail
William Ophuls was a recent discovery of mine, and reading him made me deeply grateful for the introduction. He is a political scientist by training, with degrees from Princeton and Yale, but an ecologist in practice, one of the earliest […]
Helen Andrews’ Boomers
Rarely do I pre-order a book, but in the case of Helen Andrews, presently the senior editor of The American Conservative and one of the brightest young writers at work today, exceptions must be made. I have long enjoyed her […]
Mircea Eliade’s A History Of Religious Ideas (Vol.3)
In my ongoing effort to better acquaint myself with religious thought, I have arrived at the final volume of Mircea Eliade’s sweeping A History Of Religious Ideas, covering not only the appearance of Islam and the inevitable clashes with Christianity, […]
Eric Newby’s The Last Grain Race
In the Penn’s Landing port of Philadelphia harbour, there is docked a beautiful, four-masted ship, one of the last remaining “windjammer” commercial sailing ships that traversed the world’s oceans bringing grain and other goods. Today, she is a floating restaurant, […]
Simone Weil’s Selected Essays, 1934-1943
Simone Weil is one of the most impressive and interesting 20th century intellectuals, and sadly, until very recently, one of the most overlooked. She was born into a prosperous agnostic Jewish family in Paris in 1909, achieved fluency in Ancient […]
David M. Buss’ The Evolution Of Desire
A conspicuous and disturbing fact about the modern world is that full participation in it demands we accede to a growing number of lies. The mildest dissent is met with stigma and ostracism and character assassination, which is perhaps less […]
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky’s final novel and undisputed masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, was completed in late 1880, less than half a year before his own death. It could not have been otherwise. This one book is a summa of his entire life’s investigation […]
Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone
Before I had heard of Daniel Woodrell, I saw and enjoyed the movie Winter’s Bone, based on his 2006 novel of the same name. I wasn’t alone: audiences and film critics all over the world warmed to the plight of […]
Curzio Malaparte’s The Skin
The most disturbing book I read in 2020 was Curzio Malaparte’s semi-fictional account of the liberation of Naples between 1943 and 1945. I say “semi-fictional” despite the fact that Malaparte (real name Curt Erich Suckert) was really there, both as […]
Ernst Jünger’s The Storm Of Steel
I have a special fascination with war. My grandfather fought in World War I, and two of his sons – my uncles – served in World War II. I think of them every time I read a war novel or memoir, […]
Ryszard Kapuściński’s Travels With Herodotus
Of the many faults I could charge myself with, a preference for familiarity and mundanity, for the comfort of routine, troubles me the most, the more so as many of my closest family members are inveterate travellers and novelty seekers, […]
Allan Gurganus’ White People
At the close of every year, I survey the neat stacks of books that represent the last twelve months of reading, and take stock of what I’ve read, reminiscing over the writers whose worlds I lived in. One of the […]