From Nabokov to Talking Heads, these insightful and revealing pieces stubbornly reject groupthink In one of Mary Gaitskill’s best short stories, The Agonized Face, a female journalist watches a “feminist author” read at a literary festival. The author …
“places where Real Life unfolded”
Anthony Veasna So explored what it was like to grow up as a queer son of Khmer refugees in Stockton, California. Last year he died suddenly at the age of 28, just after correcting the proofs of his debut story collection, Afterparties. Four of the nine…
Legends of the fall: the 50 biggest books of autumn 2021
From new novels by Sally Rooney and Colson Whitehead to Michel Barnier’s take on Brexit, Bernardine Evaristo’s manifesto and diaries from David Sedaris – all the releases to look out for Continue reading…
Fran Lebowitz: ‘If people disagree with me, so what?’
With a hit Netflix series and The Fran Lebowitz Reader now published in the UK, the American wit talks about failing to write, her dislike of Andy Warhol and her best friend Toni MorrisonFran Lebowitz is a famous writer who famously doesn’t write. “I’m…
Girlhood by Melissa Febos review – when a girl becomes a woman
A former dominatrix is eviscerating in her exploration of the sexual submission required as young women matureAmerican author Melissa Febos is many things the average reader very likely won’t be, among them a former dominatrix and a recovering heroin a…
12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson review – engaging history of technological progress
Whether examining sex dolls or transhumanism, the novelist brings her skill as a storyteller to these ambitious, hugely entertaining essaysJeanette Winterson is not usually considered a science-fiction writer, yet her novels have always been concerned …