Saintly institutions? Notes on a common prejudice
by Roger Kimball
On some “saintly” and “demonized” institutions and individuals.
Features
Capote reconsidered
by Brooke Allen
On the gifted and troublesome Truman Capote.
The lessons of “Lonelyhearts”
by Theodore Dalrymple
On the lessons of suffering we can learn from Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts.
The memory of Donald Justice
by David Yezzi
On the passing of the American master Donald Justice and “an eminent generation of American poets.”
Poems
Most popular
The media
Outraged intellectuals
by James Bowman
On the self-affirmed beliefs of intellectuals.
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Art
Among gods and kings
by Karen Wilkin
On “In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India: Selections from the Polsky Collections and Metropolitan Museum of Art” at the New York Asia Society.
Gallery chronicle
by James Panero
On “Inventions: Recent Paintings by Caio Fonseca” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; “Caio Fonseca, New Paintings” at Paul Kasmin Gallery; “Richmond Burton” at Cheim & Read; “Louisa Matthiasdottir: A Retrospective” at Scandinavia House, New York; “Giorgio Morandi, Paintings 1950-“1964” at Lucas Schoormans & “Rackstraw Downes, New Paintings” at Betty Cuningham Gallery.
Music
New York chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On the opening of the New York Philharmonic’s 2004-2005 season under Lorin Maazel, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center under new artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han, the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Traviata, Daphne and Platée at New York City Opera & Otello and Carmen under James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera.
Opera note
by Patrick J. Smith
On Don Giovianni, Simon Boccanegra, Beatrice and Benedict, Agrippina & La Sonnambula at the Santa Fe Opera.
Reflections: World literature in 1928
by Sarah Ruden
On the rise of the “multiculturalist” curriculum and its damages.
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Fiction chronicle
Worse yet, real life
by Max Watman
A review of Villages, by John Updike; The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth; Oblivion: Stories, by David Foster Wallace; & Heir to the Glimmering World, by Cynthia Ozick.
Books
A song and a mistake
by Eric Ormsby
A review of Metamorphoses, by Ovid, translated and with notes by Charles Martin; introduction by Bernard Knox.
Ein’ feste Berg
by Daniel Johnson
A review of A Mighty Fortress: A New History of German People, by Steven Ozment.
A quintessential general
by Victor Davis Hanson
A review of Ulysses S. Grant, by Josiah Bunting III.
Authenticity blues
by Stefan Beck
A review of The Artificial White Man: Essays on Authenticity, by Stanley Crouch.
An impossible dream
by Gerald Frost
A review of The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy, by T. R. Reid.
Shorter notices
by Hilton Kramer
A review of Many Are Called, by Walker Evans, introduction by James Agee, foreword by Luc Sante, afterword by Jeff L. Rosenheim.
Shorter notices
by Stefan Beck
Shorter notices
by Roger Kimball
A review of T. S. Eliot: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Jewel Spears Brooker.
Notebook
Thom Gunn, 1929-2004
by Paul Dean
On the passing of Thom Gunn, a poet who welcomed “Eliot’s ideal of ‘impersonality’ and scorning ‘confessional’ poetry as well as overmuch theory.”
Notes & Comments
Derrida declawed
by The Editors
On the unsurprisingly pious eulogizing of Jacques Derrida who died last month at 74.
What were they thinking?
by The Editors
On the choice of Elfriede Jelinek, Austrian novelist and playwright, as this year’s Nobel laureate for literature.