Category Archives: A Critic at Large

Are Bookstores Just a Waste of Space?

August 26, 2024 New Yorker cover
August 26, 2024

Are Bookstores Just a Waste of Space?
by Louis Menand

In the online era, brick-and-mortar book retailers have been forced to redefine themselves.

Casting a Line

July 8 & 15, 2024 New Yorker cover
June 8 & 15, 2024

Norman Maclean Didn’t Publish Much. What He Did Contains Everything
by Kathryn Schulz

You could read his literary output in a single day, yet it includes almost all there is to know about what the English language can do.

American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic

August 22, 2022 New Yorker cover
August 22, 2022

American Democracy Was Never Designed to Be Democratic
by Louis Menand

The partisan redistricting tactics of cracking and packing aren’t merely flaws in the system—they are the system.

I’ve Got Nothing

June 24, 2019

A Critic at Large
The Empty Promise of Boris Johnson
The man expected to be Britain’s next Prime Minister makes people in power, including himself, appear ridiculous, but that doesn’t mean he’d dream of handing power to anybody else.
by Sam Knight

The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch

December 17, 2018

A Critic at Large
The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch
Harper Lee’s beloved father figure became a talking point during the Kavanaugh hearings and is now coming to Broadway. Is he still a hero?
by Casey Cep

Is Education a Fundamental Right?

September 10, 2018

A Critic at Large
Is Education a Fundamental Right?
The history of an obscure Supreme Court ruling sheds light on the ongoing debate over schooling and immigration.
by Jill Lepore

Keeping Cool

May 1, 2017

A Critic At Large
Keeping Cool
Jean-Pierre Melville’s films are illuminated by what he saw when France was ruled by oppression and ordinary people had to decide what, or whom, they would obey.
by Anthony Lane

The Shadow

December 7, 2015
December 7, 2015

A Critic at Large
The Shadow
A hundred years of Orson Welles.

by Alex Ross

Forbidden Love

November 30, 2015
November 30, 2015

A Critic at Large
Forbidden Love
The passions behind Patricia Highsmith’s “The Price of Salt.”

by Margaret Talbot

Also, letters from readers about David Remnick’s piece, “Bob Dylan and the ‘Hot Hand,’ ” about Dylan’s creative streak from early 1965 to the summer of 1966.

Let It Go

December 15, 2014
December 15, 2014

A Critic at Large
Let It Go
Are we becoming a nation of hoarders?

by Joan Acocella