How to read Kafka: part I
by John M. Ellis
The first in a two-part series on the writer who transformed our view of modern rationalism.
Features
Totalitarian physics & moral threshing
by Jacob Howland
On the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Vasily Grossman’s great anti-Soviet novel Life and Fate.
Finding Franklin
by Marc M. Arkin
On the making of an American enigma, occasioned by a new biography of his early life.
The Waugh effort
by Dominic Green
On Evelyn Waugh’s military service.
Poems
Most popular
Reflections
Lies, damned lies & the European Union
by Gerald Frost
On the demise of a doomed political union.
Theater
The phantom of the obvious
by Kyle Smith
On England’s most over-the-top composer and his new memoir, Unmasked.
Art
“Corot: Women” in Washington
by Karen Wilkin
On “Corot: Women” at the National Gallery of Art.
Rockland chronicle
by Franklin Einspruch
On Andrew and Jamie Wyeth at the Farnsworth Art Museum and “John Bisbee: American Steel,” “Tom Burckhardt: Studio Flood,” and “Jocelyn Lee: The Appearance of Things” at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art.
Gallery chronicle
by James Panero
On “Red Grooms: Handiwork, 1955–2018,” at Marlborough Contemporary, “Rackstraw Downes: Paintings & Drawings” at Betty Cuningham Gallery, “Graham Nickson: Cumulus, Monumental Trees and Transient Skies” at the New York Studio School, & the late Richard Timperio, gallerist at the legendary Sideshow in Williamsburg.
Music
Salzburg chronicle
by Jay Nordlinger
On performances at the Salzburg Festival, including the conductor Teodor Currentzis with musicAeterna, the violinist Albena Danailova with other members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the pianist Yuja Wang and the percussionist Martin Grubinger, the pianist Grigory Sokolov, the operas L’incoronazione di Poppea and Salome, and the conductor Herbert Blomstedt with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
The media
Quid est veritas?
by James Bowman
On redefining truth and destroying political discourse.
Books
Notebook
V. S. Naipaul, 1932—2018
by David Pryce-Jones
On the Trinidad-born British writer, who died this August.
Rodney Nichols, 1937—2018
by William Happer
On the scientist, CO2 Coalition leader, and New Criterion supporter, who died this September.
Notes & Comments
The way we live now
by The Editors
On rewriting history and romanticizing evil on college campuses.