Henry James’ variable stance on precocious little girls
“Utterly weary” though he was of other people’s stories about precocious little girls, Henry James wrote one of his own.
“Utterly weary” though he was of other people’s stories about precocious little girls, Henry James wrote one of his own.
James Hynes came to Joseph Conrad, his favorite author, through the movies — after seeing Richard Brooks’ Lord Jim.
Laila Lalami is a precise thinker and essayist, an equally precise fiction writer, a veteran blogger, and a longtime friend. Her first book, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, has been praised by Junot Díaz, Diana Abu-Jaber, and many others. Earlier this year, Panjak Mishra admired Hope in the NYRB, lauding Lalami’s “calm sympathy,” the “evenhandedness [that] offers us no scope . . .
Nobody holds a grudge like a Southerner, but in general I prefer to seethe offline. Where the Chinese wall between my personal grievances and my reactions to someone’s ideas or projects breaks down, I just stop talking about him or her altogether. Online, I mean. Anything’s fair game over drinks. But I’ve got to say, there’ve been noisemakers going and . . .
James Wolcott proves that an examination of the problems with today’s book criticism doesn’t have to be dead boring.