Yukio Mishima and the Dream of the Holy Explosion
by Marcela Valdes
Lessons on nationalism from the suicide of a seminal postwar Japanese novelist.
In Search of Jim Crow
by Robert Christgau
How minstrelsy shaped race relations in nineteenth-century America, and what recent upheavals in minstrelsy studies say about our attitudes today.
The Possibility of the Search
by Sven Birkerts
Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer and our shimmering pursuits rekindled.
The Perpetual Debut Novelist
by David Amsden
Taking advantage of a sad new trend in publishing: your most sought-after novel might be your first one.
Mike Davis interviewed by Joshuah Bearman
The versatile author of City of Quartz on modern-day pirates, young-adult mysteries, mountain lions, and truckers.
Tibor Fischer interviewed by Isabel Duffy
The British novelist cracks Hungarian jokes, talks book-reviewing, and plans to leave London.
Elaine Pagels interviewed by Rodes Fishburne
A Princeton professor on how the long-lost Gospel of Thomas asks not “what do you believe?” but “what have you learned?”
Philip Seymour Hoffman interviewed by Ryan Bartelmay
The cult-favorite actor discusses George Saunders’s short story “Sea Oak” and other things literary.
Bird: Great-Tailed Grackle Bird by Kate Hill Cantrill
Child: Theresha Williams by Quressa Robinson
Motel: Lake Fun by Rebecca Bengal
Seksopolis by Milana Vukovi? Runji?
Originally published in the Croatian newsweekly Globus. This is, literally, a Croatian sex column.
Stuff I’ve Been Reading by Nick Hornby
This month, the sneaky author learns how to pad his list with short books, and manages to slip some controversial bits past our censors.
Underway by Various
Light: St. Elmo’s Fire by Michael Schiavo
Tool: Invacare Folding Shower Chair by E. Tyler Lindvall
Underappreciated in 2003: Brave Books That Might Have Escaped Your Notice
World’s Fair: Chicago, Illinois by Alec Michod
Schema: Toll-Free Ogres: An Indirectory by Brian McMullen
