Lewis Lapham is not impressed by the anti-Trump demonstrations that have erupted since the inauguration. Democracy, says the former editor of Harper’s Magazine, has been under “systematic assault by a kind of plutocracy, a government for the rich by the rich,” for 30 years. Donald Trump, he says, is a symptom of of anti-democratic trends long brewing, not the cause of … [Read more...]
Author celebrates the wonders of books, reading
At a time of growing reliance on smartphones and electronic devices, we need a strong reminder of the importance of reading books. In Books for Living, Will Schwalbe celebrates multiple genres, including cookbooks, memoirs, novels, poetry, children’s stories and ancient texts. His well-received previous book, The End of Your Life Book Club, related the decision by the … [Read more...]
‘New Yorker’ cartoon editor offers caption contest before Boca festival
After these many decades as an elegant magazine of literature, politics, and culture, The New Yorker harbors one vestige of its origin as a humor magazine. That, of course, is the New Yorker cartoon. Droll and wry rather than laugh-out-loud funny, The New Yorker cartoon is not for every taste. Once that taste is acquired, however, the cartoons lurk amid the gray columns of text … [Read more...]
Charles Simic’s happy obsession with writing poetry
Some of the most perceptive commentary written since the shock of the presidential election has come on the daily website of the venerable New York Review of Books, under the byline of Charles Simic, who, in his day job, is a former U.S. poet laureate and the winner of many top literary prizes, including the Pulitzer. Given that Simic’s most recent book, The Life of Images, … [Read more...]
Book argues U.S. leaves its soldiers unprepared for war’s moral questions
Many American soldiers returning home from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from nightmares and physical symptoms grouped under the label Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That label, though, does not include the moral injury and guilt that afflicts soldiers devastated by memories of killing civilians and children, and watching comrades die in battle. In What Have We … [Read more...]
Politics weighed heavy on vibrant Miami Book Fair
On the way to the Miami Book Fair on Saturday, I was making the usual small talk with the Lyft driver when he suddenly began complaining about Donald Trump. You can’t believe anything Trump says, he offered in his rough English. He’s already going back on promises to working people. He’s not going to create jobs. He’s not going to build a wall, and he’s not going to make … [Read more...]
Sanders tells Miami Book Fair crowd to keep fighting
Speaking to a sell-out crowd that obviously wanted to feel the Bern again, Bernie Sanders brought a message of hard work and hope to the Miami Book Fair Saturday evening, delivered in tones of tough love. “I understand people are distressed,” Sanders said, referring to the election of showman billionaire Donald Trump to the White House last week. “But despair is not an … [Read more...]
Toobin: Comey email notice was about ego, not politics
Not known as a comedian, Jeffrey Toobin was nonetheless consistently funny Thursday evening at the Miami Book Fair, where he came to talk about this latest book, American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes, and Trial of Patty Hearst. Effusively praising the book fair — “It’s not just a Miami institution, it’s a national institution!”— he mentioned the … [Read more...]
Novelist Brooks brings news from King David’s court to Miami Book Fair
After hearing from topical comedian Trevor Noah Sunday and Democratic strategist James Carville last night, book lovers at the third evening of the Miami Book Fair might have been looking for some literary relief from politics when the widely admired historical novelist Geraldine Brooks took the stage Tuesday. And so it was — until Brooks opened her mouth and spoke. “It’s … [Read more...]
James Carville urges fellow liberals to ‘fight like hell’
James Carville came to the Miami Book Fair on Monday night, and he was, as you might imagine, fighting mad. A longtime Democratic political consultant close to the Clintons, he did not look like or talk like a man willing to give President-elect Donald Trump a chance. “This country is going to get the best ninth-grade civics education ever,” Carville said. “We are in … [Read more...]