William Deresiewicz

William Deresiewicz is a regular contributor to The Nation's Books & the Arts section. He was nominated for a 2008 National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.

Currently

  • Letters

    December 17, 2008 Subscribe

  • How Wood Works

    November 19, 2008

    James Wood may be the best literary critic we have, but the status he enjoys reveals just how far we have fallen.

  • Seeing Past the Ivy

    October 21, 2008

    Why the commentariat's response to hand-wringing about "the decline of reading" condescends to the large mass of nonspecialist readers.

  • Homing Patterns

    September 24, 2008

    Marilynne Robinson's new novel explores faith, loneliness and the national passion play of race.

  • Meetings, Purchases, Pleasures

    August 27, 2008

    Salman Rushdie probes the limits of the imagination to produce his most coherent and readable novel.

  • Dead Letters

    May 22, 2008

    Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig saw himself as a Freud of fiction--a fellow spelunker in the caverns of the heart.

  • Professing Literature in 2008

    March 11, 2008

    Why is the intellectual agenda of English departments being set by teenagers?

  • Foes

    February 7, 2008

    J.M. Coetzee, now out with a new novel and a collection of essays, reminds us what a master he is at turning life into narrative.

2007

  • Fukú Americanus

    November 8, 2007

    Junot Díaz's masterful new novel maps the ambiguities in the modern immigrant experience in America.

  • The Imaginary Jew

    May 10, 2007

    Two new novels, by Michael Chabon and Nathan Englander, recharge the modern Jewish experience with a sense of the exotic.

  • Cafe Society

    April 26, 2007

    Clive James's erudite new collection of essays celebrates the best of twentieth-century art, thought and politics.

  • The Book of Questions

    February 6, 2007

    In a book-length essay on the novel, Milan Kundera foresees the curtain of literary history drawing to a close.

2006

  • Awesome Powers

    November 21, 2006 Subscribe

  • Representative Fictions

    November 16, 2006

    An ambitious two-volume history of the novel explores its evolution across continents and centuries.

  • Science Fiction

    September 20, 2006

    Richard Powers's The Echo Maker speaks volumes about neuroscience, nature and environmental degradation. But it says little about what it means to be alive.

  • Dead Man

    May 11, 2006

    Philip Roth's Everyman is a contemporary morality play that explores the author's obsessions with health and virility, ecstasy and betrayal, and the certainty and solitude of death.

2005

  • Zadie Smith's Indecision

    September 15, 2005

    It can't be easy to rein in a writer as successful as Zadie Smith. Her new novel, On Beauty, proves it's almost impossible.

  • It's a Man's, Man's World

    August 25, 2005

    Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men seems designed as a calculated assault on the reader.

2004

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Blogs

» Capitolism

Correcting the Record on Pete Stark and Healthcare | Congressman Pete Stark does not favor single payer
Christopher Hayes
Posted at 2:17 PM ET

» The Beat

Impeachment Made Easy: The Illinois Model | Blagojevich is impeached by a legislative chamber that recognizes its constitutional duty.
John Nichols

» State of Change

Senator Kennedy Approves | Liberal lion enthusiastically welcomes Solis at smooth confirmation hearing, as unions cheer process on.
John Nichols

» The Dreyfuss Report

Bush Does A 180 on Gaza | But where are the Democrats? Where is the Center for American Progress? Hello? CAP? Mr. Podesta??
Robert Dreyfuss

» Altercation

Slacker Friday | While Harry Reid continues to audition for his next job as a throw-rug in the Minority Leader's office, it's important to remember that the GOP is still a clown car.
Eric Alterman

» Editor's Cut

Obama Must Get Afghanistan Right | If he doesn't, the US will be stuck in another military catastrophe.
Katrina vanden Heuvel

» Act Now!

Allow Media into Gaza | Israel is encouraging abuses by preventing foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip.
Peter Rothberg

» The Notion

Hard Times Without Studs | One of Terkel’s former book editors considers a Studs-less world.
Tom Engelhardt

» And Another Thing

Bill Ayers Whitewashes History, Again | The Weathermen were not just a bunch of idealistic young people.
Katha Pollitt