We were talking about movies. Someone said that tragedies are therapeutic, while happy endings — “don’t they just make you feel awful about your own life.” His irony whipped up a flurry of mild outrage, as if everyone at once sensed in it a dark truth urgently in need of being swept under the carpet. Yet none of us could deny that, as creatures who need contrast in order to articulate our experience, even to ourselves, we are hardly ever sure that fortune is smiling upon us — unless aided by the knowledge that it has turned its back to someone else. In moments of distress, our most convenient consolation is that “it could be worse,” meaning that it could be worse and could still be mended. Teffi, the late Russian writer whose latest collection of stories in English is Other Worlds: Peasants, Pilgrims, Spirits, Saints, is unrivaled in tracing the intricate connections of sympathy and social comparison. Like no other author, she knew that comedy is tragedy amended.
Closing minutes — of a movement, or of an entire work — tend to be a big deal for Cerrone. His compositions can seem like vessels that catch sparse rainfall for long stretches, thus setting critical terms of engagement for a listener, until a limit of storage is reached. Then, his writing sends this carefully husbanded material back outward in generous pourings.
Not only does Vo capture the timbre of Fitzgerald’s lush prose, but she follows the trajectory of the novel’s contrails into another realm. This is a version of “The Great Gatsby” in which partygoers drink demon blood, sorcery twists the beams of reality, and Jay Gatsby is a bisexual vampire.
Finally, the story makes sense.
“Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States” is a stunning accomplishment from history professor Jonathan Levy. It’s a history and analysis of the various economic systems from the Colonial period to the 2016 election. And it’s relatively free of jargon and written in lively, accessible prose.
For most of us, the phrase “home economics” probably conjures up images of postwar high school classes designed to launch young women into their marital lives, fully armed with sewing and souffle-making skills. But home economics has a much more complicated and at times surprising past. In “The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live,” journalist Danielle Dreilinger uncovers the complex history beyond the stereotypes of “stirring and stitching.”
A student asks for eulogy guidance.
The next day, I have a brother and
we discuss sociopaths, cold worms,
how we ended up so undisturbed.