It was too, too hot and humid today, which made it a good day to behave like a leisured, cultured bourgeoise and repair to the New Museum in Chelsea, where I could enjoy several hours of air conditioning. I’d been wanting to go anyway since reading a review of … [Read more...]

Here’s how I heard about what happened in London: Winston and I were in Maine for a few days of vacation and to see the premier of my friend Bea’s “Downeast Chamber Opera,” THE SINGING BRIDGE (a smashing success, as it turned out). On the morning of our first full … [Read more...]

I’m on vacation, so this won’t be much of a post. But I wanted to offer this quote from Claudia Rankine’s striking book Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (subtitled An American Lyric): The sadness is not really about George Bush or American optimism; the sadness lives in … [Read more...]

This is going to be an exceedingly informal post because: I’m at the Goddard MFA residency, it’s a steambath outside and in, the only air conditioners are in rooms dedicated to the efficient functioning of photocopiers and printers, and I’m in a funk for reasons … [Read more...]

I’ve been writing a long review of Michael Cunningham’s Specimen Days in the context of his earlier fiction. It’s been fascinating to spend a bunch of time with his work. I very much enjoyed The Hours when it first came out, at which time I read it completely … [Read more...]