Books

Literary one-liners: in Lydia Davis’s new collection, brevity is the soul of wit

The cover of Lydia Davis’s new collection of (very) short stories is printed simply with an excerpt from the four-line titular story “Can’t and Won’t.” In this story, an author is denied a prize and accused of laziness for using too many

May 9, 2014

Books·Essay·Swarthmore Review

“It says here to burn the rich and take their shit”: An interview with poet Michael Robbins

While I could start by quoting Benjamin on Baudelaire, or make some sweeping — and likely very silly– statement about the status of the poet in (post?)-postmodernity, I will simply say this: Michael Robbins is as unabashedly modern as a poet should

October 5, 2014

Books·Swarthmore Review

A tale of two time periods

At first glance, Donna Tartt seems to be the anti-Bret Easton Ellis. The two were friends, and dated briefly, as undergraduates at Bennington College. At school, Ellis and Tartt shared the manuscripts of their debuts-in-progress, manuscripts that would become “Less Than Zero”

May 9, 2014

Books·Swarthmore Review

Book review: 24/7

In “Digital Witness,” the first single of St. Vincent’s latest album, Annie Clark laments over a throbbing array of guitars: “What’s the point of even sleeping? / If I can’t show it, you can’t see me. / What’s the point of doing

March 27, 2014

Books·Region·Swarthmore Review·Uncategorized

Book review: Planning Philadelphia

The usual rap on post-World War II city planners is that they ruined our cities with their highways and shopping malls, and even now we are not entirely done recovering from the damage they did. At least in my experience, this view

January 20, 2014

Books·Swarthmore Review

Book review: The Franzen project

Jonathan Franzen’s reception at Swarthmore last spring was lukewarm. He spoke fatalistically of the social impact of fiction and disavowed the readings of his books that would point to any social messages. When he admitted that the one explicit goal of his

January 20, 2014

Books

Literary one-liners: in Lydia Davis’s new collection, brevity is the soul of wit

“It says here to burn the rich and take their shit”: An interview with poet Michael Robbins

A tale of two time periods

Book review: 24/7

Book review: Planning Philadelphia

Book review: The Franzen project

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