Jane Austen

For her fourth novel, The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud has put aside her customary sobrie  read more »

For her fourth novel, The Emperor’s Children, Claire Messud has put aside her customary sobriety a  read more »

(I love saying that.)

Guess Harvard kids aren't the only ones who like the packaged lit story. The Times is now Frey-ing Viswanathan. The paper of record hops on Jon Liu's piece this morning. But doesn't do nearly as good a job as Liu.

The great thing Liu did, or tried to do, was a literary postmortem on Kaavya Visnawathan (I hate this story—you try spelling her name some time). He went back over a bunch of her interviews and showed how her literary influences were just what you'd think a Harvard undergrad's would be: Kazuo Ishiguro (somebody help me!), Zadie Smith (whew), Jane Austen. Hey Harvard kids don't brag on reading Megan McCafferty, young adult novelist. Liu was taking this story to the next, meta- level. What made this Opal book?

I think Harvard kids have succeeded in Frey-ing Visnawathan. They've opened it up and made it delicious. This one won't end—if I know Harvard—till Visnawathan has given back her advance and dropped out. To understand what I'm saying, just read The Lord of the Flies, or A High Wind in Jamaica. Two (true) classics of young adult lit, in which young adults eviscerate one another and cook the liver over the camp fire.

Midway through Metropolitan, the preppy cast riffs on Luis Buñuel’s unflattering portra  read more »

Midway through Metropolitan, the preppy cast riffs on Luis Buñuel’s unflattering portrayal of the  read more »

Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, from a screenplay by Mr.  read more »

Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana, from a screenplay by Mr.  read more »

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s saga of manners and mores in 19th-century England and bad t  read more »

It's such a pleasure for me to return for a moment from writing columns about the endless tragedy of  read more »

A while back, my colleague Ron Rosenbaum made what seemed an eminently sensible proposal: that a goo  read more »

The Edward Said Reader , edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew Rubin.  read more »

Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park , from the novel by Jane Austen, is not what one would call a faith  read more »

I've had Jane on my mind again. Jane Austen and the waypeople still get her wrong.  read more »

Sea Battles on Dry Land , by Harold Brodkey.  read more »