Category: Criticism

Book Review, Criticism, Essay

The Joan Didion-esque Nature of Gavin Newsom’s Young Man in a Hurry

Perhaps, on the surface, one doesn’t automatically associate the names Joan Didion and Gavin Newsom. Oh sure, they’re both from California and proud to be (well, Didion ultimately seemed prouder of living in New York). And they both have long-standing roots in the state that go back generations (Didion a “fifth-generation” Californian and Newsom a “fourth-generation” one). This being the mark of a “real” Californian … Continue reading The Joan Didion-esque Nature of Gavin Newsom’s Young Man in a Hurry

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Book Review, Criticism, Essay

Rachel Cusk’s Life of M is Less a Takedown of Natalie Portman and More an Illumination of the Hollowness of Celebrity Itself

Throughout the twentieth century and for most of the twenty-first thus far, the quest to become famous has remained a common goal among the starry-eyed and attractive (even if only “by small-town standards”). In fact, one could argue it has for so long been presented as the foremost goal not just because of fame’s erstwhile association with wealth, but because “who wouldn’t want their name … Continue reading Rachel Cusk’s Life of M is Less a Takedown of Natalie Portman and More an Illumination of the Hollowness of Celebrity Itself

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Criticism, Essay

Chiara Barzini’s Things That Happened Before the Earthquake Reminds that Italians “Out West” Have, In Many Regards, Always Had It Rougher When It Comes to “Assimilating”

Perhaps the first thing one must emphasize in talking about the Italian diaspora in the United States is that East Coast Italians are very much their own race of people now, entirely separate from Italians themselves (the real ones that arrived in the 1880s for the first wave of immigration). And they certainly seem to like it that way—are even proud of the “standalone” “culture” … Continue reading Chiara Barzini’s Things That Happened Before the Earthquake Reminds that Italians “Out West” Have, In Many Regards, Always Had It Rougher When It Comes to “Assimilating”

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Criticism, Essay

Holden Caulfield as Early Prototype for the Modern-Day Incel/Generally Disaffected Male

Seeing as how the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of The Catcher in the Rye occurred on July 16th, there’s been the usual amount of “honoring” the book and its ongoing legacy. But it seems that one legacy about it that still doesn’t get talked about enough is just how much Holden Caulfield served as a blueprint for the type of male now commonly referred … Continue reading Holden Caulfield as Early Prototype for the Modern-Day Incel/Generally Disaffected Male

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Criticism, Essay

The Oddness of The Devil Wears Prada 2 Acting As if the Notion That “Print is Dead” is New or Sobering Information

It’s funny to think that as recently as 2022, when discussing The Devil Wears Prada, Anne Hathaway told The View, “I don’t know if there can be [a sequel]. I just think that movie was in a different era. Now everything’s gone so digital and that movie is centered around the concept of producing a physical thing and it’s just, it’s just very different.” But … Continue reading The Oddness of The Devil Wears Prada 2 Acting As if the Notion That “Print is Dead” is New or Sobering Information

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Criticism, Essay

Christian Kracht’s Eurotrash: Another Bret Easton Ellis-Style “Romp” That Examines the Guilt of Privilege—and How That Guilt Ultimately Serves Nothing But the Status Quo

If Christian Kracht’s debut novel, Faserland, was considered a “rip-off” of Bret Easton Ellis’ general style, Eurotrash would also like to submit itself for consideration. After all, its autofiction genre is very much in keeping with what Easton Ellis did for 2005’s Lunar Park (back when “metafiction” was the chicer word to use). And while most people associate BEE with Less Than Zero (which also, … Continue reading Christian Kracht’s Eurotrash: Another Bret Easton Ellis-Style “Romp” That Examines the Guilt of Privilege—and How That Guilt Ultimately Serves Nothing But the Status Quo

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Book Review, Criticism

Perfection: Not So Much an Attack on Millennials as the Things That Shaped Their Formative Years—In Other Words, the Internet

From the very outset of Vincenzo Latronico’s fourth novel (and the first to be translated to English), Perfection, there is a simmering contempt that’s always waiting to boil to the surface, but never does in quite the direct way one might have ordinarily expected before emotional suppression and passive aggression became de rigeur. A description that can, in effect, describe what it means to be … Continue reading Perfection: Not So Much an Attack on Millennials as the Things That Shaped Their Formative Years—In Other Words, the Internet

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Criticism, Essay

Why Emerald Fennell’s Adaptation of Wuthering Heights Is Such a Hot-Button Issue for the Stodgier Side of the Literary World Right Now (And Why It Shouldn’t Be)

It’s not any kind of “shocking revelation” that what’s left of the “book business” is mostly in shambles. And that what it takes to “monetize” literature in the present is a decidedly “bread and circuses” approach. Never was that made more apparent than the advent of “BookTok.” However, with Emerald Fennell’s latest film, a “version” of Wuthering Heights (that she opted to put in quotation … Continue reading Why Emerald Fennell’s Adaptation of Wuthering Heights Is Such a Hot-Button Issue for the Stodgier Side of the Literary World Right Now (And Why It Shouldn’t Be)

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Criticism, Essay

Michael Douglas Movies Document a “Crisis of Masculinity” Trajectory, Or: Jessa Crispin’s What Is Wrong With Men Answers That Question and Then Some

It’s no secret at this juncture that there has been an ongoing “crisis of masculinity.” What that means, ultimately, is that most hetero men can’t fathom why their continued performance of outmoded masculine “ideals” aren’t translating and/or attracting women in the present. Enter Jessa Crispin to explain it all via the films of Michael Douglas, in a book titled What Is Wrong With Men. With … Continue reading Michael Douglas Movies Document a “Crisis of Masculinity” Trajectory, Or: Jessa Crispin’s What Is Wrong With Men Answers That Question and Then Some

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Book Review, Criticism

The Uptown Local, Or: Listening to On the 6 Might Be a Better Experience

In 1999, Jennifer Lopez released her first record, On the 6—a title that alluded to her commute from the Bronx to Manhattan while working her early jobs as a dancer. Perhaps Cory Leadbeater thought better of titling his memoir the same, opting instead for The Uptown Local, which says as little about Joan Didion as the book itself…but “at least” readers know he had to … Continue reading The Uptown Local, Or: Listening to On the 6 Might Be a Better Experience

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