Reviews and Essays
A Portrait of the Scholar
June 1, 2025 | The American Scholar
Does biography illuminate the work of an artist? James Joyce slyly poked at this age-old question in his 1922 novel Ulysses. In one of the book’s many meandering scenes, Stephen Dedalus and a group of literary associates banter
Ink-Stained Life
May 20, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
Before he became a spy or a novelist, Ian Fleming was a newspaperman. In 1933 he reported for Reuters on a blockbuster show trial in the Soviet Union in which a group of British engineers faced trumped-up charges of espionage.
A Book-Lined Retreat
February 20, 2025 | The Wall Street Journal
Picture a humble study. It is situated on a house’s second floor, near the bedrooms, forming an inner sanctum removed from the bustle of the street. A lamp sits on a desk to give a working writer plenty of light. Books line the walls from floor to ceiling
The Road to Stardom
December 2, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
Josh Brolin is a postmodern cowboy. Masculine but too vulnerable to be macho, at ease on a motorcycle or on horseback, he looks best with dust in the grooves of his skin. Some of his scars are self-inflicted. “I have made life harder than it’s needed to be,” the actor concedes in his memoir
The Call of the Climb
November 27, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
Modern mountaineering is a quest for niche glory. The Earth’s highest peaks have been climbed and reclimbed so many times now that elite alpinists must distinguish themselves with obscure prizes: ascend faster, or by a harder route,
A Faculty for Espionage
October 25, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
The U.S. entered World War II with an intelligence deficit. Its allies and enemies had long-established clandestine operations, some of them dating back centuries. But the Americans had no dedicated spy service and relied
Echos of an Imperial Composer
August 23, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
Was Tchaikovsky a tempest or a drudge? The great Russian composer of iconic works like “The Nutcracker” and the “1812 Overture” is generally thought to have lived a life of melodrama. An alcoholic and an insomniac, he endured a catastrophic marriage and suffered
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
July 6, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
In an extraordinary gesture of trust, the American president left Washington, D.C., on September 9, 1943, and handed the British prime minister his keys. “Winston, please treat the White House as your home.
Sharp Bookmark
May 15, 2024 | The Millions
Is Salman Rushdie an artist or a symbol? Can he be one but not the other? Or perhaps it’s an all-or-nothing affair and he is both or else neither. Ever since Rushdie, the author of 13 novels, was violently attacked onstage
Paul Auster’s Voice
May 8, 2024 | The Millions
Paul Auster died on April 30 after being the voice in my ear for a month. I had only recently finished his massive novel 4321, using an approach I learned from my wife to preserve momentum on very long books.
Great Lakes Odyssey
April 5, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
In a time of pessimism and uncertainty, storytellers have recently turned to the future to predict a grim world that yet retains flickers of light. HBO’s recent series “The Last of Us” explored the familiar terrain of the zombie apocalypse through the bond between
The Killing of an IRA Man
April 1, 2024 | The Wall Street Journal
The political conflict in Northern Ireland that not so long ago involved a cycle of terror and reprisal has given way to a series of dry bureaucratic spats. The regional parliamentary assembly in Belfast recently reconvened