The Unspeakable
Yiyun Li’s new novel uses conversation as the mode to better explore her narrator’s grief.
Blog Archives
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Nuance Within the Shadows: An Interview with Esmé Weijun Wang
Wang, who was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in college, after earlier misdiagnoses, debunks stigmas and stereotypes about schizophrenia in her new collection of essays, and provides essential information about a spectrum disorder long misunderstood.
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Oedipus and the River Monster
Daisy Johnson’s new retelling of the Oedipus myth molds the story’s original questions into new shapes: What does fear look like? What produces it?
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Nabokovian Desire in Sex Me: Confessions of Daddy’s Little Freak
In wondering why victims stay in abusive relationships, people often ignore the more pressing question: why don’t abusers stop abusing?
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Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
From a city ensconced in massive treetops where no children are ever born, to a black market for human remains literally underground, Marlon James leads readers on a journey through an Africa western fantasy has long ignored.
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The Psychological Repercussions of Silence in Stewart O’Nan’s City of Secrets
Silence is, necessarily, a fact of life for Brand, the protagonist of Stewart O’Nan’s 2016 novel, who has emigrated illegally to Palestine from the Soviet Union where he survived Gulag camps, and who has since become a member of the Haganah, a Jewish organization working to liberate Palestine from Britain.
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Difficult Novels
There is something incredibly patronizing about “readability” being the exclusive domain of the “common reader,” and about the way it continues to inform aspects of literary criticism.
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Sherlock in Shanghai
How difficult is it for a story to move continents? One of Sherlock Holmes’ early Chinese translators, Cheng Xiaoqing, decided to find out, transplanting Sherlock Holmes from the foggy streets of nineteenth century London to his own Republic-era Shanghai.
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Work, Love, and Partnership in Tove Jansson’s Fair Play
Jansson’s 1989 novel serves as a particularly poignant antithesis of the “loner artist” narrative, dealing instead with a loving partnership that, rather than getting in the way of artistic work, lifts and expands it.
