Michiko Kakutani
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Of Ocean and Earth
Over at the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani reviews Ocean Vuong’s new collection of heartbreakingly gorgeous poems, Night Sky With Exit Wounds. Kakutani writes: There is a powerful emotional undertow to these poems that springs from Mr. Vuong’s sincerity and…
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The Cool Future
“All plots tend to move deathward,” the narrator of “White Noise” says. “This is the nature of plots. Political plots, terrorist plots, lovers’ plots, narrative plots, plots that are part of children’s games. We edge nearer death every time we…
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Coming of Age
The publication of Go Set a Watchman may have cast Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in a new light, but the high school classic and its author will forever occupy an essential spot in the American literary canon. Michiko…
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New Year, New Reading List
When Esquire released a list of “The 80 Best Books Every Man Should Read,” the magazine provoked ire and excoriation. But hey, at least Esquire has recognized its mistake. For its new list of “80 Books Every Person Should Read,”…
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The Kakutani Two-Step
“The Kakutani Two-Step. It works roughly like this: belittle a novelist’s finest work to date – preferably by tossing around unsupported adjectives…say, “arbitrary,” “flimsy,” and “unfinished.” Then, five or six years later, when the novelist in question brings forth his…