Omnivore
Voter turnout
Emily Stewart on 2018’s record-setting voter turnout, in one chart. Black voters propelled blue wave, study finds. Big Latino turnout in midterms raises stakes for 2020. The United States is becoming a two-tiered country with separate and unequal voting laws. Low voter turnout is no accident, according to a ranking of the ease of voting in all 50 states. Voters just approved the biggest expansion of the voting franchise in half a century. Scott Mclemee reviews Votes That Count and Voters Who
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Paper Trail
Grant author Ron Chernow will headline the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner next year. “Freedom of the press is always a timely subject and this seems like the perfect moment to go back to basics,” Chernow said in a statement. “While I have never been mistaken for a stand-up comedian, I promise that my history …Syllabi
Outrageous Clarity: The Fictions of Amélie Nothomb
Charlotte ShaneWith Amélie Nothomb’s latest, Strike Your Heart, the Francophone author of twenty-five books seems to have finally found some of the American attention she deserves. (I’m basing this assessment in part …- The Roots of the Alt-right Mike Wendling
- Marriage Reimagined Laura Smith
Daily Review
The Piranhas
In English, “novel” equals “fiction”—the meaning is unambiguous. In Italian, however, it’s a bit more complicated. The word romanzo describes a book-length prose narrative, but it does not distinguish between fact and fiction. In the work of Roberto Saviano—Italy’s most … 
- Seasonal Associate
by Heike Geissler
Interviews
Sarah Schulman
Sarah Schulman is a native New Yorker, an activist, and, although I'm not sure she would apply the label to herself, a profound philosopher on social relations and blame, All of these streams flow into her recent novel Maggie Terry, a literary detective story about a former NYPD officer struggling with addiction, a tough case, and her ex-partner's theft of her daughter, In a compressed time frame of a few days, Maggie, fresh out of rehab, both loses and finds her place in the new New York.
…- Two Southern belles on the run get catcalled one too many times by the same schlubby …
- I've spent the past few days unpacking my library. My books are finally on the shelves, …
- In his visionary 1985 essay “Exactitude,” the Italian writer Italo Calvino says, “The …
- The concept that each American state is its own “laboratory of Democracy”—a term coined …
- NO WORKING WRITER believes in the shattering power of an encounter—with another person, …
- Heike Geissler, the German novelist and translator, ran out of money in the winter of …
- DeRay Mckesson is a frustrating figure. I don’t mean Mckesson the person, but rather …
- The usual thing, in book reviewing, is to start with the positive. Polite book reviewers …
Reviews
Excerpt
Seasonal Associate
Heike Geissler
You’re shivering and sweating at the same time on the bench. Time’s flying; you’ll have to pick up your children soon, but you don’t want to make a fuss yet. As if for your entertainment, the most beautiful and elegant of trial presentations begins in front of two shelves full of books, CDs, and DVDs.
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