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Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – January 28, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 26, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Ukraine’s Leading Man’ – In “The Showman”, Simon Shuster makes the case that Volodymyr Zelensky’s past as an entertainer helps him on the world stage…

Volodymyr Zelensky’s Greatest Performance

A photograph of reporters in a conference hall gathered around a long desk, listening to Zelensky addressing them from a flat panel TV at the end of the desk. Some of them are wielding boom mics and large cameras. Others are typing at the desk.

In “The Showman,” the journalist Simon Shuster trails the entertainer-turned-wartime president as he rallies the world for support.

By David Kortava

THE SHOWMAN: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky, by Simon Shuster

Nine months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, the Time magazine correspondent Simon Shuster caught a ride on a presidential train that few, if any, journalists had seen from the inside. In a private carriage, with the blinds drawn, Volodymyr Zelensky was fueling up on coffee during a trip to the frontline. He’d been reading about Winston Churchill, but with Shuster he’d sooner discuss another key World War II figure: Charlie Chaplin.

“He used the weapon of information during the Second World War to fight against fascism,” Zelensky said. “There were these people, these artists, who helped society. And their influence was often stronger than artillery.”

Mightier — and Meaner — Than the Sword

Emily Cockayne’s “Penning Poison,” a history of anonymous letters, reveals the ways we’ve been torturing one another, verbally, for centuries.

The Rise and Fall and Rise of San Francisco

Two books — “The Longest Minute,” by Matthew J. Davenport, and “Portal,” by John King — examine the City by the Bay’s resiliency from very different angles.

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The New York Times Book Review – January 21, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 19, 2024): The latest issue features the excitement over advance copy reviews of a January novel, Kaveh Akbar’s “Martyr!” …“You’ve got to read this,” one editor said. “One of the most electric novels I’ve read in a long while,” another said. This kind of thing — everyone thrilled by the same book — is unusual at the TBR, and explains why “Martyr!,” about a grieving young man’s search for meaning, graces our cover this week.

A Death-Haunted First Novel Incandescent With Life

This colorful illustration features a large red bird and a horse’s head and neck, both adorned with Farsi letters, as well as a skyward-bound airplane and a black-hooded figure with many faces holding a torch in one hand and a sword in the other. These details are laid over a backdrop of blue-green mountains and yellow sky.

In “Martyr!,” the poet Kaveh Akbar turns a grieving young man’s search for meaning into a piercing family saga.

Martyr!, by Kaveh Akbar

Reviewed by By Junot Díaz

Cyrus Shams, the aching protagonist at the heart of Kaveh Akbar’s incandescent first novel, is a veritable Rushdiean multitude: an Iranian-born American, a “bad” immigrant, a recovering addict, a straight-passing queer, an almost-30 poet who rarely writes, an orphan, a runner of open mics, an indefatigable logophile, a fiery wit, a self-pitying malcontent. But above all else Cyrus is sad; profoundly, inconsolably, suicidally sad.

Here are the books discussed in this week’s episode:

  • “Knife,” by Salman Rushdie
  • “James,” by Percival Everett
  • “The Book of Love,” by Kelly Link
  • “Martyr,” by Kaveh Akbar
  • “The Demon of Unrest,” by Erik Larson
  • “The Hunter,” by Tana French
  • “Wandering Stars,” by Tommy Orange
  • “Anita de Monte Laughs Last,” by Xochitl Gonzalez
  • “Splinters,” by Leslie Jamison
  • “Neighbors and Other Stories,” by Diane Oliver
  • “Funny Story,” by Emily Henry
  • “Table for Two,” by Amor Towles
  • “Grief Is for People,” by Sloane Crosley
  • “One Way Back: A Memoir,” by Christine Blasey Ford
  • “The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir,” by RuPaul
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The New York Times Book Review – January 14, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 12, 2024): The latest issue features ‘What Happens When Writers Embrace Artificial Intelligence as Their Muse? by A.O. Scott…

Literature Under the Spell of A.I.

This image shows the nine female muses of Greek myth as miniature figures in shades of blue against a pale blue background. The muses are holding hands and encircling an enlarged return key of the sort that appears on a laptop keyboard.

What happens when writers embrace artificial intelligence as their muse?

By A.O. Scott

The robots of literature and movies usually present either an existential danger or an erotic frisson. Those who don’t follow in the melancholy footsteps of Frankenstein’s misunderstood monster march in line with the murderous HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” unless they echo the siren songs of sexualized androids like the ones played by Sean Young in “Blade Runner” and Alicia Vikander in “Ex Machina.”

We fantasize that A.I. programs will seduce us or wipe us out, enslave us or make us feel unsure of our own humanity. Trained by such narratives, whether we find them in “Terminator” movies or in novels by Nobel laureates, we brace ourselves for a future populated by all kinds of smart, possibly sentient machines that will disrupt our most cherished notions of what it means to be human.

A Clash of Civilizations Brought to Life

In this close-up, black-and-white portrait, Álvaro Enrigue’s hair is windblown and he is holding his jacket’s collar up, obscuring part of his face.

For Álvaro Enrigue, a novelist fascinated with historical detail, the first meeting of the Aztecs and Spanish conquistadors is the obsession of a lifetime. He brings it to life in “You Dreamed of Empires.”

By Benjamin P. Russell

The Aug. 13, 2021 edition of The New York Times failed to mention the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan, the erstwhile Aztec capital out of which Mexico City was born. Álvaro Enrigue noticed. Of course.

The 54-year-old Enrigue, who grew up in Mexico City, believes that early meeting between Europe and the Americas changed the trajectory of global commerce, urbanism, industry and much else besides. Modernity itself, he argues, was born in the moment the Aztec emperor Moctezuma and Hernan Cortés, the Spanish conquistador, first looked each other in the eye in 1519, a clash of empires that set in motion the city’s capture two years later.

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The New York Times Book Review – January 7, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 5): The latest issue features ‘Read This And Learn’ – For decades, Juan Rulfo’s novel, “Pedro Páramo,” has cast an uncanny spell on writers. A new translation may bring it broader appeal.

A Masterpiece That Inspired Gabriel García Márquez to Write His Own

A black-and-white photograph of a man resting his chin on his hand over a small wooden table. An Aztec skull sits next to his face.

For decades, Juan Rulfo’s novel, “Pedro Páramo,” has cast an uncanny spell on writers. A new translation may bring it broader appeal.

By Valeria Luiselli

Readers of Latin American literature may have heard one of the many versions of this story:

It is 1961 and Gabriel García Márquez has just arrived in Mexico City, penniless but full of literary ambition, trying desperately to work on a new novel. One day, he is sitting in the legendary Café La Habana, where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were said to have plotted the Cuban Revolution. Julio Cortázar walks in, carrying a copy of Juan Rulfo’s novel “Pedro Páramo.” With a swift gesture, as if he’s dealing cards, Cortázar throws the book on García Márquez’s table. “Tenga, pa que aprenda,” he says. “Read this and learn.”

Willa Cather and Yehudi Menuhin: An Unlikely, Unwavering Friendship

A pair of black-and-white historical photographs show Willa Cather and Yehudi Menuhin, holding a violin.

These two titans of 20th-century literature and music formed a profound, yearslong relationship across generations and backgrounds.

By Joshua Barone

Early in 1935, a blizzard blew through New York City. The storm was so fierce, it virtually emptied Central Park. But Willa Cather spent her morning there, sledding with the violin prodigy Yehudi Menuhin and his sisters.

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The New York Times Book Review – December 31, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 31, 2023): The latest issue features Francis Ford Coppola Is Ready For His Close-Up – Sam Wasson’s supremely entertaining new book, “The Path to Paradise”, tracks the ups and downs, ins and outs, of a remarkable career.

The Problem of Misinformation in an Era Without Trust

This image shows the face of a wooden Pinocchio figure reflected in the screen of an iPhone on a bright red background. Pinocchio’s long nose protrudes a couple inches from the screen.

Elon Musk thinks a free market of ideas will self-correct. Liberals want to regulate it. Both are missing a deeper predicament.

By Jennifer Szalai

When the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk sat down for his profanity-laced interview at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit in late November, his petulant dropping of F-bombs received a lot of attention. Less noticed but far more revealing was his evident disdain for a humble word beginning with the letter T. “You could not trust me,” Musk said, affecting an air of tough-guy indifference in his shearling-collared flight jacket and shiny black boots. “It is irrelevant. The rocket track record speaks for itself.”

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The New York Times Book Review – December 24, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 22, 2023): The latest issue features MAGIC: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, by Roland Lazenby; My Jewish Charlie Brown Christmas – The Peanuts special is the most overtly Christian TV holiday classic. So why does it speak to me so deeply?; Seven Fishes (Not Seven Dishes) for Christmas Eve – A modern Italian American take on the Feast of the Seven Fishes offers a streamlined menu any family can pull off….

Magic Man: The Story of the Greatest Point Guard in N.B.A. History

A color photograph of a tall man in midair holding a basketball. His uniform is purple and gold.

Roland Lazenby’s big biography of Magic Johnson gives us a wealth of detail, a huge cast of characters and, in a way, the tapestry of our time.

By Thomas Beller

MAGIC: The Life of Earvin “Magic” Johnson, by Roland Lazenby

I once asked a portrait photographer why no one ever smiled in her pictures, and she replied, “A smile is a mask.”

I thought of this aphorism as I read Roland Lazenby’s 800-page biography of Magic Johnson. Sports Illustrated declared his smile to be one of the two greatest smiles of the 20th century. (The other was Louis Armstrong’s.) As Missy Fox, the daughter of his high school coach, says in the book, “That is the one thing he’s always had, that smile.”

My Jewish Charlie Brown Christmas

Two animated Peanuts characters, Charlie Brown and Linus, stand beside a very anemic Christmas tree in the snow.

The Peanuts special is the most overtly Christian TV holiday classic. So why does it speak to me so deeply?


By James Poniewozik

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” was a one-of-a-kind wonder when it premiered in 1965 and remains so almost 60 years later. Unlike the other jingle-belled baubles that TV throws down the chimney each year, it is melancholy and meditative. The animation is minimalist and subdued, full of grays and wafting snowflakes. I could wrap myself in the Vince Guaraldi jazz score like a quilt.

And then there’s the speech.

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The New York Times Book Review – December 17, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 15, 2023): The latest issue features ‘Glorious Memoirs by the Very Rich’ – A look back at a time when the super-wealthy felt they had nothing to lose by letting readers inside their gilded corridors; For Kate Christensen, Bad Prose Can Never Yield a Great Book – “A book is made of language,” says the author, whose new novel is “Welcome Home, Stranger.” “How can a house be great if it’s made of shoddy materials? How can a dinner be great if it’s made with terrible ingredients?”

It’s My Privilege: Glorious Memoirs by the Very Rich

This whimsical illustration, in shades of yellow, green, gray, brown and black, features a lavishly decorated domestic space, at the center of which, beneath an opulent chandelier, sits a smiling bejeweled woman in a plush armchair. Behind her and around her we can see part of the faces and hands of busy serving staff — holding a fan, a serving tray, a dustpan and broom, etc.

A look back at a time when the super-wealthy felt they had nothing to lose by letting readers inside their gilded corridors.

By Molly Young

“Class consciousness takes a vacation while we’re in the thrall of this book,” Barbara Grizzuti Harrison wrote in the Book Review in 1985, in her evaluation of the heiress Gloria Vanderbilt’s memoir “Once Upon a Time.” To be clear, Harrison was referring to the class consciousness of the reader, not the author. Vanderbilt demonstrates perfect awareness throughout her book that most young children don’t play with emerald tiaras and alligator jewel boxes lined in chestnut satin, or rely on the services of multiple butlers, or lose count of their own houses. Harrison’s point was that Vanderbilt’s talent with a pen — and perspective on her own economic altitude — allowed consumers of her tale to suspend their envy and engage with the reality of growing up in opulent neglect.

For Kate Christensen, Bad Prose Can Never Yield a Great Book

This illustration of Kate Christensen shows her with long reddish brown hair parted on one side and falling past her shoulders. Her green eyes match her crew-neck blouse.

“A book is made of language,” says the author, whose new novel is “Welcome Home, Stranger.” “How can a house be great if it’s made of shoddy materials? How can a dinner be great if it’s made with terrible ingredients?”

What books are on your night stand?

I’m living temporarily in a rented house in Iowa City, teaching at the Writers’ Workshop. When I arrived there was not one book in the entire place, so I made an emergency trip to the local used-book store, collecting whatever leaped out at me from the shelves, mostly based on the wonderful titles: “Overhead in a Balloon,” by Mavis Gallant; “Watson’s Apology,” by Beryl Bainbridge; “Anthills of the Savannah,” by Chinua Achebe; “The Brandon Papers,” by Quentin Bell; “The Marquis of Bolibar,” by Leo Perutz; “The Seven Sisters,” by Margaret Drabble; “Bruised Hibiscus,” by Elizabeth Nunez; “A Journal of the Plague Year,” by Daniel Defoe.

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The New York Times Book Review – December 10, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 10, 2023): 

The Critics’ Picks: A Year in Reading

This is a colorful illustration of dozens of brightly colored books, shown as if they were refracted through a kaleidoscope.
Credit…Timo Lenzen

The Book Review’s daily critics — Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs and Jennifer Szalai — reflect on the books that stuck with them in 2023.

By Jennifer Szalai, Alexandra Jacobs and Dwight Garner

24 Things That Stuck With Us in 2023

Margot Robbie, dressed in head-to-toe pink, drives a pink convertible with Ryan Gosling, also in pink, in the back seat. They’re driving through the desert, with a sign reading Barbie Land behind them.
Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in “Barbie.”Credit…Warner Bros. Pictures

Films, TV shows, albums, books, art and A.I.-generated SpongeBob performances that reporters, editors and visual journalists in Culture couldn’t stop thinking about this year.

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The New York Times Book Review – December 3, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (December 3, 2023): This week features the Holiday Books issue that lands with a thump, a 56-page behemoth crammed with reviews, coffee-table book spreads, recommendations from our genre columnists, a children’s book gift guide and our 100 Notables list. 

100 Notable Books of 2023

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Each year, we pore over thousands of new books, seeking out the best novels, memoirs, biographies, poetry collections, stories and more. Here are the standouts, selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

How a Good Book Became the ‘Richest’ of Holiday Gifts

As Christmas came to be celebrated in the home, choosing the right volume was a way to show intimate understanding of the person opening the package.

By Jennifer Harlan

As long as people have been buying gifts for the holidays, they have been buying books. Books offer infinite variety, are easily wrapped, can be personalized for the recipient and displayed as a signifier of one’s own identity. They are, in many respects, the quintessential Christmas — or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or other December celebration — gift.

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The New York Times Book Review – November 26, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (November 26, 2023): This week’s issue features  Michael Cunningham’s “Day.”; the 2023 Notables list, “Kantika”, “The Nursery.” and “Western Lane” , because it’s a finalist for the Booker Prize, which will be announced on Sunday.

A Pandemic Novel That Never Says ‘Pandemic’

This illustration shows three people sitting at a table, but the image is broken up into three panels, giving the appearance that the three people are in the same space, but alone and at different times.

Michael Cunningham’s “Day” peeks into the lives of a family on one specific April date across three years as life changes because of Covid and other challenges.

By Caleb Crain

DAY, by Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham’s new novel, “Day,” visits a family on April 5 in 2019, 2020 and 2021 — before, during and after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which shadows the book although the words “Covid” and “pandemic” never appear.

‘Western Lane’ Finds Solace From Grief on the Squash Court

In Chetna Maroo’s debut novel, an adolescent girl mourns the death of her mother in the empty reverberations between points.

By Ivy Pochoda

WESTERN LANE, by Chetna Maroo

At the start of Chetna Maroo’s polished and disciplined debut, Gopi, an 11-year-old Jain girl who has just lost her mother, stands on a squash court outside London. She isn’t playing. Instead, she’s listening to the sound of the ball hitting the wall on the adjacent court, “a quick, low pistol-shot of a sound, with a close echo.” It is not so much the shot itself that Gopi is hearing, but that echo, the empty reverb, the lonely response as the ball’s impact gives the striker a split second to retreat to the T, the center of the court, and prepare to counteract her opponent’s responding shot.