THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features Drew Gilpin Faust’s analysis of historical approaches to slavery’s defenders, Ian Tattersall’s exploration of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s role in evolutionary science, and Ange Mlinko’s review of Lisa Robertson’s novel Flow Chart of Paris.

Nothing Stays Buried

Nancy Lemann sets her sad screwball novels of manners in the closed-off world of upper-crust white New Orleans that she grew up in.

Lives of the Saints by Nancy Lemann, with an introduction by Geoff Dyer

The Ritz of the Bayou by Nancy Lemann, with an introduction by James Wolcott and an afterword by the author

The Oyster Diaries by Nancy Lemann

Devils in America

The lessons that Donald Trump learned from Roy Cohn—lie, cheat, engage in unlimited corruption—now shape official government policy in the US.

American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump by Kai Bird with Susan Goldmark

De Kooning Draws a Picture

Willem de Kooning’s works on paper document his efforts to find ways of retaining both image and abstraction, depth and flatness.

Willem de Kooning Drawing an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, June 14–September 20, 2026, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, October 9, 2026–January 17, 2027

‘Writing on One Table’

Charles Lamb’s camp, mischievous, melancholic alter ego, Elia, owes much to his sister, Mary, with whom he lived for forty years, absorbing her “rambling chat.”

Complete Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Volume IV: Elia and The Last Essays of Elia edited by Gregory Dart