RealClearBooks Articles
The Internet Infection
The viscerally negative reaction (one Tweet got upwards of 1.3 million views) of The DiscourseTM to Honor Levy's My First Book, or rather, more importantly to Honor Levy's recent profile in The Cut, is enough to make the reviewer a partisan: a defender of the right of any serious author, including Levy, to be criticized for their work, and not their character (or perceptions, rumors, or machinations about who and what they might be). The behavior of a banal, envious mob of semi-intellectuals (over-produced humanities elites jockeying for the last traces of financial and moral support left...
The Sad Life of Carson McCullers
The novels and stories of American writer, Carson McCullers, are populated by sad and lonely characters. They are perpetually seeking a sense of belonging, yet in some sense, they know that belonging is impossible. They remain outcasts and often meet tragic ends.
McCullers’ life was not that different from many of her characters. Plagued by loneliness, burdens of sexual orientation, and extreme alcoholism, McCullers sought the same sense of belonging and love that always seemed elusive and difficult to attain. Mary V. Dearborn’s new biography on McCullers seeks to illuminate her...
"All Fours" by Miranda July
A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd...
The Impossible Is Indeed Possible
Author Junot Diaz remembers a family member of his in the Dominican Republic who was believed to be a medium that would “become possessed” whenever she heard “certain kinds of music or certain kinds of drums.” In contrast to the rationalism that came to pervade most of Western culture, this “new world cosmology”–as he calls it–which melded Christianity with African and Caribbean indigenous paganism, recognized the transcendent element within everyday experiences ranging from music and the weather to the body and sex.
My maternal grandmother was...
'Dune: Part Two' Elevates the Original
I was too young to see the Lord of the Rings trilogy when it hit theaters a little over two decades ago. When I heard that one of Hollywood’s finest working directors, Denis Villeneuve, would shortly be adapting Dune to the big screen, I was determined not to miss out.
After two years and four months’ wait, the most common criticism of Part One has been answered: The incomplete story set up in the first installment is now complete. We rejoin Paul (Timothy Chalamet), Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), Chani (Zendaya), and Stilgar (Javier Bardem) in the same...
Our Dystopian Future Is Inside Your Gambling App
Earlier this month, basketball player Jontay Porter, former Toronto Raptors benchwarmer, saw his short and unimpressive NBA career come to an abrupt end. This severe penalty stems from his involvement in a gambling scheme that exploited his access to privileged information and his ability to influence game outcomes. He was caught manipulating his play and leaking insider health information to bettors, specifically using platforms like DraftKings to place high-payout, high-risk parlay bets — the kind favored by many of an ever-growing pool of gambling addicts for their potential huge...
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 'Fallout'
In terms of popular franchises that were ripe for adaptation, Fallout had to be one of the best candidates available. It’s an immensely popular video game series with a devoted fanbase, several bestselling games, and endless source material that a team of talented writers could use to make a compelling story.
Done right, it could have joined the ranks of recent successful video game adaptations like The Last of Us, Arcane, or the The Super Mario Bros. Movie by handling the franchise with care and following the rules of good filmmaking. Then again, it could decide to go woke and make a...
Gatsby Loses to Woody Allen
Welcome to the Roaring Twenties. Of course, it’s too early to know whether the roar is college revolt or the howl from high food prices. Two years ago, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece of the prior Roaring Twenties, The Great Gatsby, entered the public domain and on April 25th a Broadway musical version opened on the Great White Way. The timing is exquisite, since we are living in an era where billionaires fascinate, and populists propose to confiscate their wealth. Fitzgerald’s flawed, all-American tycoon earned his stash of illicit loot trading shady corporate bonds, and...
Everyone Failed Ronda Rousey
Women’s mixed martial arts pioneer Ronda Rousey’s new book, Our Fight, is a remarkable document. If her first book, 2015’s best-selling My Fight / Your Fight, was intended to establish the Bronze Medal-winning judoka and then-UFC women’s bantamweight champion as the greatest combat athlete of all time, this book — also co-written with Maria Burns Ortiz — explains how it all went south so quickly. Indeed, in the annals of athlete autobiographies, this book stands apart. A closer comparison, in tone if not in content or literary significance, might be...
"Blood Money" by Peter Schweizer
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
It’s often said that China is in a cold war with America. The reality is far worse: the war is hot, and the body count is one-sided.
China is killing Americans and working aggressively to maximize the carnage while our leaders remain passive and, in some cases, compliant. Why?
If anyone could crack the code, it’s the renowned nonpartisan investigator Peter Schweizer. Schweizer’s previous three number one New York Times bestsellers sent shock waves through official Washington, sparking FBI investigations...
The Mental is Political
Political satires, like politicians themselves, often have a hard time striking a balance. Tilt too much in one direction and you alienate your base, tilt too much in the other direction and you end up preaching to the choir. Many authors lose their balance and end up tilting at windmills.
Such is the tightrope that Lionel Shriver walks in her new political-satire novel, Mania. Don’t expect any subtlety here. Mania is set in an alternate-history 2010s, where a new movement called Mental Parity (MP) sweeps across the Western world, a movement that declares that there are no differences...
The Great American Speculator
Emerson is a difficult subject for a biography; on one hand, a biographer must compete with his journals. And because some of Emerson's most famous and important essays were in the mode of biography–the strange and wonderful “Representative Men” series–Emerson’s portraitist must also compete with Emerson on another front: the extraordinary shape and color of Emerson’s own biographical insights necessarily compete with his erstwhile biographer’s:
Napoleon is thoroughly modern, and, at the highest point of his fortunes, has the very spirit of the...
Keeping the Republic
“The Constitution Is Broken And Should Not Be Reclaimed.” This headline from a New York Times editorial written by two law professors (from Harvard and Yale), is simply a more hyperbolic expression of a point of view that has become increasingly prominent in the writings of law professors, journalists, political scientists, and politicians who deem the Constitution to be not only “broken,” but also “paralyzing,” “undemocratic,” and “obsolete.”
Even more prevalent are arguments for abolishing or radically changing key aspects of the...
'The Gentlemen' Is Stylish and Fun
The great British wit Oscar Wilde once wrote, “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” Of all today’s filmmakers, no one better embodies this wisdom than Guy Ritchie. Whether it’s a criminal caper, a revival of a beloved franchise, a spy movie, or even a live-action Disney Princess movie, it’s easy to recognize Ritchie’s imagination at work. The characters and settings are flamboyant and colorful, the pacing of the plot is energetic, and each scene is often filled with characteristically dry British humor.
As one might...
"Keeping the Republic" by Dennis Hale & Marc Landy
Keeping the Republic is an eloquent defense of the American constitutional order and a response to its critics, including those who are estranged from the very idea of a fixed constitution in which “the living are governed by the dead.” Dennis Hale and Marc Landy take seriously the criticisms of the United States Constitution. Before mounting their argument, they present an intellectual history of the key critics, including Thomas Paine, William Lloyd Garrison, Henry David Thoreau, Woodrow Wilson, Robert Dahl, Sanford Levinson, and the authors of The 1619 Project. Why,...
Back Home Again
The story begins in a hotel or motel, where the narrator, a twenty-something only child, has had a disturbing dream involving his or her mother. The novel, introduced by this scene and ending with what follows it, consists otherwise in a long analepsis narrating the memories disquieting the narrator’s sleep, events which started at the age of eleven or thirteen. The setting is New York in the early 21st century, or a fictional city, seemingly later that century, that resembles New York, and the narrator’s and his or her mother’s place in it is among wealthy people, though...
The Battle for Hope
Michel Houellebecq’s infamous novel Submission features Francois, a middle-aged literary scholar who functions as a postmodern rendering of Durtal, the main character of J.K. Huysmans’s turn-of-the-century decadent novels. Francois’s academic and personal fascination with Huysmans leads him to explore whether Durtal’s journey from the dark excesses of Western decadence to exuberant faith and hope in the Eternal is still possible 100 years later. In the end, Francois doesn’t manage to find the light.
Among the most divisive characters in today’s literary...
"Family Unfriendly" by Timothy P. Carney
The bestselling author of Alienated America traveled the country asking families and experts the same two questions: Why is parenting so hard now? And why are the results so bad?
Our culture tells parents there's one best way to raise kids: enroll them in a dozen activities, protect them from trauma, and get them into the most expensive college you can. If you can't do that, don't bother.
How is that going? Record rates of anxiety, depression, medication, debts, loneliness and more. In Family Unfriendly, bestselling author and Washington Examiner columnist Timothy P....
VICTIM
Mr. Martin pulled back the curtain. But my real transformation began at Donlon. It makes perfect sense now. Donlon was a whole new ecosystem where I could hone my new superpower.
In fact, it was in one of my very first classes as a college student there—a mandatory sociology class about race and ethnicity—that I learned something profound: I am a victim of systemic oppression. Or, I guess I should say, I was. Now, I’m in some liminal space. Existing in some sort of reverse perjury. My immutable characteristics and “lived...
Criticism in the Internet Age
I have had an encounter by proxy with novelist and critic Lauren Oyler. My wife once tweeted, innocently, “nothing in the world is better than a husband who is good with children.” It’s true: I am good with children. Oyler quote-tweeted, “Why am I seeing tweets like this constantly. It’s this and stuff like some videogame addict who makes $250k/year claiming you don’t need to eat vegetables because all the nutrients are in whole grains and meat.”
Now I thought this was a bad tweet, but not because she’s annoyed at seeing my beautiful...
