In his fine introduction to J.L. Carr’s A Month in the Country [1980] (New York: New York Review Books, 2000), Michael Holroyd suggests Carr added in honor of…
Rarely, one comes to a novel from watching a movie based on it. Even more rarely does a very faithful movie – a superb film – lead to…
The year of the snake on the Chinese calendar has inspired HSBC to a slick advertising campaign with an arresting image: a brush-painted black snake. The constrictor’s long body…
Does Whitey Bulger have a secret passion unknown to his chroniclers and fabulists? Yes, and I know what it is. *** Saturday, I bought Whitey Bulger, the…
Like ‘Watergate’ and ‘Iran-Contra’, ‘Whitey Bulger’ stands for a group of interrelated crimes followed by less or more successful cover ups. ‘Truth will out’ we came to…
A census-taker in backwoods Kentucky, found hanged, naked, with ‘FED’ scrawled in black magic marker on his chest: most people remember hearing about it. No one I’ve asked…