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In Proust’s Library

Whether they follow an established tradition or rebel against it, whether they are authors of classics or are considered innovators, rare are the writers who were not also great readers. Proust was no...

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What We’re Loving: Prohibition, Bourbon, Coffee

When I asked my college advisor how I could learn to write dialogue like Raymond Carver, he told me to study a real master: John O’Hara. Naturally this kept me from reading O’Hara’s novels for twenty...

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Farewell, Sergio Pitol

Sergio Pitol, the celebrated Mexican author, essayist, translator, and winner of the Cervantes Prize, died in his home last Thursday. He is remembered here by Elena Poniatowska, considered “Mexico’s...

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Becoming Kathy Acker: An Interview with Olivia Laing

Left: Olivia Laing. Right: Kathy Acker.   When Olivia Laing’s third book, The Lonely City, appeared in 2016, she was hailed as one of the leading contemporary nonfiction writers in the U.S. and the UK....

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Ave Marías: An Interview with Javier Marías

It has been said of Anthony Trollope that as soon as he finished a novel, he turned to a fresh page and started on the next, and it’s tempting to think that Javier Marías enjoys a similarly...

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Balzac and the Reassembly of France

Louis Boulanger, Balzac, 1836. In the 1820s, when Honoré de Balzac decided to become a writer, the novel was a minor literary genre in France. Like Voltaire, educated French people preferred poetry and...

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Writing Is a Monstrous Act: A Conversation with Hernan Diaz

Novelist Hernan Diaz. Photograph by Pascal Perich. Money talks—so goes the truism—but rarely is it the subject of fiction. “Class? Sure. Exploitation? Absolutely. Money? Not so much,” Hernan Diaz...

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Nam Le and Nancy Lemann Recommend

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The pandemic seemed like a good time to read the ninety-odd novels of Balzac that comprise The Human Comedy. (Which you can get on...

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The Lawn Is Resting: A Visit to Balzac’s House

The Maison de Balzac. Photograph by Bailey Trela. The Maison de Balzac is located in the sixteenth arrondissement at 47, rue Raynouard, Paris, in the heart of the former village of Passy. If you visit,...

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