Word: readerly
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...novel has a unique literary character. Its first purpose, like that of all fiction, is to entertain. Yet by having as its subject the spy, the man who goes where others do not, it implicitly assumes a secondary responsibility: to inform. A good spy novel allows the reader to see the world from the perspective of the spy, to peek from the dark shadows and assess it in recognition of its full complexity. Though the advertising for “Body of Lies,” the newest novel from Washington Post columnist David R. Ignatius...
...recognize is that without equal rights, these groups could never achieve the American dream. To demonstrate the spirit of individualism that pervaded the country of the time, Richardson peppers her overarching view of societal trends with tales of actual individuals. The aptly chosen lives she traces help the reader understand the motivations of the time and make it more personal. These individual stories allow Richardson to delve into narrative history and ensure that “West from Appomattox” is not accessible only for scholars. Rather, it feels aimed at people who are intellectual and enjoy history...
...real life. Roberto Bolaño begs to differ. As a young man, Bolaño gave up everything to pursue a life in poetry, believing that one should take poetry as seriously as he takes life, that if the author lived what he wrote, the reader would live it, too. This absurd, desperate, noble idea is at the heart of “The Savage Detectives,” a book so good that it is not only its own justification, but a justification for literature itself. Due in large part to this novel—the 1998 winner...
...Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House." As far as Imus is concerned, a black woman like Ifill should be emptying the President's trash cans, not interviewing him. That casual slander reminded me of an e-mail I once received from a reader who asserted his view of a black woman's proper place. "I have floors that need to be mopped," he said, and--more crudely than I can dare repeat--a sexual organ that needed to be serviced. He would have been happier, apparently, if I were...
...While we appreciate the editorial’s praise of the current state of science at the Radcliffe Institute and the acknowledgement of the role of President-elect of Harvard and Dean of the Radcliffe Institute Drew Gilpin Faust in its evolution, the piece could leave a reader believing that there were no scientists at Radcliffe prior to 2002. Since the founding of the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study in 1960 (renamed the Bunting Institute in 1978), more than 1,300 scholars from all of the academic disciplines and the creative arts have worked productively at Radcliffe. With the founding...