What made the best Burton movies sing was the play between the normal and the paranormal, the grounding in the real as events got decidedly unreal. He used to play that game better than anyone else — and we can see his moves with exceptional clarity in the first Beetlejuice.
It was a long road to Ralph Lauren’s spring 2025 show in Bridgehampton. Really, though: at 2:30 p.m., I boarded a sprinter van in Midtown Manhattan organized by the brand with eight other fashion editors. By 3 p.m., it still hadn't left. And at ten past the hour, as we began to inch down Madison Avenue, I knew we were going to be late for the brand’s desired 6:30 p.m. start time. I just didn’t know how late. Because the only thing worse than the New York City traffic we were currently in? Long Island Expressway traffic—the exact highway we were trying to turn onto.
Barker’s target in these books is war, a male obsession for which females tend to pay dearly. As this entertaining but relentless novel makes clear, no matter what the era some things never change. Human beings are not very nice.
I confess to a great love and admiration for Niall Williams. Time of the Child is a Christmas tale of the very best sort, one that reminds us of the fundamental mystery of being human. Even in this sinking parish on the furthermost edge of nowhere, in the dark and dying time of the year, there’s something in the air that speaks of the miraculous.