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Maugham on philosophy’s pleasures and limitations

It was my habit to start the day with a perusal of a few pages of a metaphysical work. It is a practice as healthy to the soul as the morning bath is healthy to the body. Though I have not the kind of intelligence that moves easily among abstractions and I often do not altogether understand what I read . . .

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My introduction to the conversation with Donna Tartt

By popular demand, here’s a lightly edited version of my introduction to the conversation Donna Tartt and I had after her reading last night.  • There are very few novelists writing today — or in any era, I suppose — of whom it can be said with certainty that they will be read in a hundred or two hundred years. . . .

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Talking with Donna Tartt in Park Slope tonight

I’m thrilled: Tonight Donna Tartt will read from her wonderful new novel, The Goldfinch, at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, and then she and I will have a conversation about it.  We’re filling up, but you can still reserve a spot, if you’re interested. And if you’d like to join us but can’t make it for one reason or another, here . . .

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