Eve Tushnet

Confession:  Catholics, Repentance, and Forgiveness in America by patrick w. carey oxford, 392 pages, $34.95 In the 2013 Joseph Gordon-­Levitt romantic comedy Don Jon, the porn-obsessed title character hits the confessional, reels off his ­usual list of sins against chastity, and then . . . . Continue Reading »

Jesus tells His apostles, “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matt 10:16). But for many Catholics, the wolves have been our own shepherds. Continue Reading »

In the film I Am Not a Witch we see how every human society interprets its own beliefs as damage, and routes around them. Continue Reading »

I, Tonya lets you see yourself in a woman who bitterly recalls how she became a criminal and a punchline.  Continue Reading »

A Book of American Martyrsby joyce carol oatesecco, 752 pages, $29.99 A Book of American Martyrs, Joyce Carol Oates’s novel about the shooting of an abortionist by a Christian “Soldier of God,” is perfectly unempathetic. Lately we’ve heard a lot about how important it is to feel empathy . . . . Continue Reading »

Kayla Rae Whitaker’s debut novel about two cartoonists, The Animators, asks whether the overexamined life is worth living. Continue Reading »

The gripping film The Unknown Girl shows us a world where guilty people are desperate for the freedom granted by confession. Continue Reading »

Alberto Rodríguez's film “Marshland” is a haunting combination of detective tale and truth-and-reconciliation case study.  Continue Reading »

Carmen Boullosa’s They’re Cows, We’re Pigs transforms a pirate adventure into a gripping meditation on utopia, embodiment, and brotherhood. Continue Reading »

The sole remaining source of authority, in the world of the new future history play Charles III, is vulnerability. Continue Reading »