Monday, August 31, 1998

Tony Smith: True to Form

The galleries of Tony Smith's recent retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art were quiet and empty through their summer run—somehow appropriate for Smith's black, enigmatic sculptures. For the few who did attend this exhibition, "Tony Smith: Architect, Painter, Sculptor" presented a distilled artistic language, the language of form.

Digging into the Subterranean Kerouac

From those three modern classics, only one stays truly ingrained in your soul. Its not Catcher because it too personal; you've experienced those feelings and you never want to go through them again. Fear and Loathing is something you never want to experience, or if you had, you never want to experience again (since you're still probably having flashbacks about the giant lizards). However, On the Road is eternal.

Ram Murali Finds Literary Perfection: Review of 'The Secret History'

I first read The Secret History by Donna Tartt when it came out,in 1992. I have reread it probably a hundred times since then, flipping it open to a random page and memorizing the nuances of the author's style. My hardcover copy is almost in tatters. Since I first read it, I have aged six years, gone through high school and most of college, and have not found another book that I think is better written, more interesting, or in any way superior to it.

The Foul Taste of Freedom: Christopher Pearson Reviews 'For Your Own Good'

As Jacob Sullum documents in his fine new book, For Your Own Good, incidents like these epitomize the sensibility that now governs the antismoking movement: misinformation alloyed with a pious ill temper.

Dean Goldsmith's Little Book

Our tiny dean has taken a potentially interesting topic and made it mind-bendingly dull. Asch led a very eventful life, encountering many of the luminaries of the twentieth century.

A Letter From Tuzla

The girl is eighteen and has lived in Tuzla all of her life. She is my student. I am teaching an English-language class this summer with another Dartmouth student at a teen center here. Tuzla is a city of about two hundred thousand, located a three-hour drive north of Sarajevo.

Bart Giamatti: A Better Class of People

This book, which every literate baseball fan will cherish, contains material of considerable interest about gritty subjects the author faced as baseball comissioner, such as the Pete Rose case and the necessity of disciplining the hooligans in the stands.