Misfortunes of Imaginary Beings

Charlie Pierce makes it:  Ever since that thoroughgoing, bean-counting, soulless bastard Robert McNamara was in charge of it, the Defe...

The reason I value Charlie Pierce's blog so much is the way he has of getting at the essence of things: One of the last actions  of ...

When I first saw this famous faceoff of the Thomases, More and Cromwe...

When it comes to language, I side with the descriptivists -- those who acknowledge that the English language is constantly in a process of c...

Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending I read Barnes's short novel in almost one sitting, not because it's a particularly compell...

One reason I look forward to Monday is Mr. Pierce's (God save him!) roundup of the Sunday talk shows. What Are The Gobshites Saying The...

I told a friend recently that I had no interest in seeing the film Life of Pi because I admired the book so much. But tonight, watching a r...

Lately I've read two novels by distinguished contemporary writers that left me wondering if it's possible to be too clever for a nov...