Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate

ONE OF THE MOST SAVAGE reviews ever written was published in 1818 in response to a collection of verse by a somewhat unknown poet. The critic, John Wilson Croker, declared, “the author is a copyist... Read More

Leonardo Flies Home

  Leonardo Da Vinci, took his place across the tiny aisle from me, and buckled the belt of his seat. I was certain it was him. Too timid to speak, I listened as he told... Read More

AT WINTER

[caption id="attachment_18103" align="alignright" width="250"] Hasui Japanese Woodblock Print Shimoda 1937[/caption] The moon’s a fat convict of the stick-stalk trees then escapes, a desperado loose in the yard, a bruising undresser of raw light, naked of... Read More

Nutshell

BOOK BY IAN MCEWAN NAN A. TALESE / DOUBLEDAY 2016 197 PP.; $24.95 THE PROTAGONIST and first-person chronicler of the British writer Ian McEwan’s new novel Nutshell is quite the worldly fellow: eloquent, erudite, cultured,... Read More

The Story of Reason in Islam

BY SARI NUSSEIBEH STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2016 288 PP.; $29.95 AS A WESTERNER for whom the intellectual history of Islam is something of a mystery, reading Sari Nusseibeh’s timely and sweeping new book was like... Read More