The idiotic, self-devouring cultural dialectic of Ireland since independence has ensured that its own damaged iconographies have blocked access to certain elements of the past, and therefore stymied present artists. Continue Reading »
Last year marked the thirtieth anniversary of Dana Gioia’s Can Poetry Matter?, a follow-up to his famous 1991 article in The Atlantic. The article and book caused quite a stir. Gioia observed that poetry was no longer a part of intellectual life in America. It was not published in . . . . Continue Reading »
The resurgent nationalisms of recent decades have been one response to the homogenizing impulses of globalization—but nation is not the solution to homelessness in Eugene Vodolazkin’s Brisbane.Continue Reading »
Seen today, Jazz on a Summer’s Day shimmers with its glimpses of a world in which people, for all their differences, shared so much. When was the last time so many people got together with such geniality and grace? Continue Reading »
Art gives us structure and clarity; it helps us make sense of the disorder of life. Will Arbery’s Corsicana is a weird play, but you will feel warmer for having seen it—and maybe a little wiser, too. Continue Reading »
Despite its flaws, Louise Penny’s latest novel is ultimately a book of fundamental human goodness. It encourages us to look at a child, as happens at a significant New Year’s Eve moment, and not see “Down syndrome,” but a person with a name—a person given for us to love. Continue Reading »