Under Review
Deep dives into new books.
What Was Paul Gauguin Looking For?
The artist has lately been derided as a colonizer and a pedophile, the creep of the Post-Impressionists. A new book reëxamines his vision.
The Best Books We Read This Week
Our editors and critics review notable new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Curzio Malaparte’s Shock Tactics
The Italian writer, once Mussolini’s pet propagandist and later a literary cult hero, was an unmatched chronicler of Europe’s horrors.
The World That ABBA Made
It once seemed unlikely that four Swedes in sequins would become global pop icons. A new biography describes how the band became ubiquitous.
.jpg)
The Atomic Bombs’ Forgotten Korean Victims
Survivors of the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still fighting for recognition.
Alison Bechdel and the Search for the Beginner’s Mind
With the cartoonist’s new graphic novel, she appears once again to be trying for the “light, fun” book she’s longed to write.
Why Good Ideas Die Quietly and Bad Ideas Go Viral
A new book, “Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading,” argues that notions get taken up not because of their virtue but because of their catchiness.
Can Sam Altman Be Trusted with the Future?
The C.E.O. of OpenAI helped usher artificial intelligence into public life. Now, as fears and fortunes mount, his own transformation is just beginning.
Andrea Long Chu Owns the Libs
The writer is known for her acerbic criticism of liberals. Is she one herself?
The Miscalculations of COVID School Closures
Millions of American children were denied regular in-person instruction for more than a year after the virus emerged. What did we get right—and wrong?