I just finished an awfully good debut novel by a young writer named Thomas Leveritt called The Exchange-Rate Between Love and Money. The book takes place among a group of international expatriates who have come to Sarajevo in the still-shaky aftermath of the conflict in the nineties. Quick-buck artists, soldiers of fortune, peacekeepers, international aid …
Several years ago, I had a conversation with the political commentator Jeff Greenfield about how the personal appearance of candidates affects elections. Most of our conversation focused on facial hair, and its almost total disappearance among political candidates, especially among those for national or state-wide office. Jeff thought the fashion against facial hair would be …
That fine old sixties exclamation “That was wild!” has never been particularly useful to me; I always found it vague. Well, never has it seemed more perfect than in describing Inglourious Basterds, the new film by Quentin Tarantino. It is wild! Funny, tense, violent, exciting–it’s really enormously entertaining. In some ways, it’s even more entertaining …
One of the more pleasant respites in what has proven to be a fairly challenging summer (thank goodness for the Yankees–so far) has been the discovery of Battlestar Galactica (above, the trailer for Season One). I am not sure if it was prejudice against the original series or prejudice against the Sci-Fi Channel, or some …
In 1979, the man I worked for, a young New York City Councilman named Tony Olivieri, decided that he had had enough of Jimmy Carter, and took it upon himself to launch a local Draft Kennedy movement. There wasn’t much to do to forward that cause, since Ted Kennedy wasn’t mounting a campaign just yet. …
I am an enormous fan of the British writer Nick Laird, whose first novel, Utterly Monkey, was raucous and funny and evocative of modern life among young Londoners. I just finished his new novel, Glover’s Mistake, which is smart and knowing about relationships and personalities and art and love. In both books, what jumps out …
Molly totaled our Toyota on the Taconic last week, just south of the 202 exit headed north. She sustained no damage. Thank God for crumple zones. It is, of course, horrifying to contemplate what might have been.
Knowing of my longstanding fascination with private conversations made unintentionally public, my friend David Hochman sent along this treasure from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. Please note what the very specific president does not discuss (payment). Click here to listen.
I had a short but fun telephone interview yesterday with Richard Curtis, who wrote the screenplays for Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones’ Diary, two films I enjoyed tremendously, and who has written and directed a new film that will open in October called Pirate Boat. Formerly titled The Boat That Rocked–I guess …
I’ll leave it to my friends in Philadelphia to decide how warmly to embrace Michael Vick; the spirit of forgiveness has never really been the City of Brotherly Love’s style, but if it’s worth a couple of touchdowns, I’m sure Iggle fans can learn to be warm and fuzzy. I am more impressed by the …
FORGET WHETHER VICK SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PLAY–SHOULD TOM DELAY BE ALLOWED TO DANCE? Read More »