The Poetry of Connection
Reviews of Space Traveler by Benjamin S. Grossberg, Unions by Alfred Corn, and Nothing to Declare by Henri Cole.
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Wonder Woman’s Hidden Agenda
GREAT HERA, Wonder Woman lives! Noah Berlatsky, comic commentator and editor-blogger for the Hooded Utilitarian, takes the reader on an eye-opening exploration of the subtexts of the Wonder Woman comics from the series’ inception in 1941 to 1948. He focuses on the ideas of William Marston, Wonder Woman’s creator, and of Harry Peter, the series illustrator.
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The Novel as Magic Act
The Disappearance Boy by Neil Bartlett Bloomsbury. 282 pages, $26. “ALL I’D SAY by way of a warning is that you need to remember that a magician is not…More
Woman + Woman = Enlightenment
In the first chapter of The Sexuality of History—a play on Michel Foucault’s famous title, The History of Sexuality—Susan S. Lanser argues that the basic trappings of modern Western civilization, everything from eating with forks to the “rights of man,” first appeared in the 1600s and have been developing since then.
MoreWhat Was Forster Thinking?
“ARCTIC SUMMER,” the title of an unfinished novel by E. M. Forster, well suits this fictional biography of the English writer. It’s hard to imagine a writer further…More
Life As a Sonic Boom
Flanagan provides deft plot summaries and sensitive readings of Mishima’s fiction and deploys a wide array of Japanese sources currently unavailable in English, producing a rich portrait of this very strange and complicated man. As Flanagan tells it, Mishima’s life was one long, extreme, calculated performance, and that assessment seems apt. It’s a performance that, 45 years later, continues to reverberate in Japan, and beyond.
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America through a Gay Glass, Darkly
Kramer is making the case that America from earliest times foreshadowed its response to AIDS, and indeed facilitated the development of AIDS.
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Before There Was Mapplethorpe
Philip Gefter, photo editor, journalist, and film producer, has produced a book that makes the case for Wagstaff’s importance in elevating photography from its inferior critical and market position in the art world.
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Loving in Triangles
Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar Ballantine Books. 350 pages, $26. The descendants of the original members of the Bloomsbury Group—a name taken from the neighborhood in which…More
Short Reviews
Reviews of Framed Butterflies by Raad Rahman, and Matthew Connor’s album Farewell Motel.
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