World
Anne Enright’s Literary Journeys to Australia and New Zealand
Not long ago, the Irish writer Anne Enright visited Australia and New Zealand. When asking for a local recommendation at the Potts Point Bookshop, in Sydney, she was encouraged...
The World That ABBA Made
There is probably not a second that goes by without an ABBA song being played somewhere in the world. A remix of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”...
James Frey’s New Cancelled-Guy Sex Novel Is as Bad as It Sounds
The author page of “Next to Heaven,” James Frey’s new novel, breathlessly notes that Frey “was called America’s Most Notorious Author by Time Magazine and the Bad Boy of...
A Forgotten Surrealist’s Paintings Return to New York
When Ford returned to his gallery, he entered Orlik’s name into Artnet, the art-price database. His search yielded barely any results. According to Pietruszka, Orlik had exhibited his work...
Apocalypse No: “The Life of Chuck” Stumbles at the Finish Line
It’s impossible to discuss “The Life of Chuck” without revealing the ending, because that’s where the movie starts. It’s built backward, as is the Stephen King novella on which...
So You Want to Be a Genius
Let’s say there’s another pandemic. This time, a lethal disease spreads through contact with other people’s fecal matter. Precision toilet cleaning becomes a matter of life and death. In...
Cactus Wren Is Doing Its Own Thing
The space is bright and open, with high ceilings and large windows that highlight the eternally terrific people-watching of the Lower East Side. The mint corner location is the...
Play It Again, Charles Burnett
One of Burnett’s earliest cinematographic efforts is the silent short “69 Pickup,” written and directed by Penick. Two Black men pick up a white woman hitchhiking on the boulevard....
Lessons of Later-in-Life Fatherhood
Forty-nine years ago, on what I recall as a Saturday morning when I was six and my father was fifty-six, I barged into the bathroom, as was my habit,...
