With regard to his four decades as a Springsteen fan, Pethes knows he’s not special. But the magic of Springsteen is that he makes his fans feel that they are and, often, that he has altered their lives. How does Springsteen do this? Pethes, a literature professor at the University of Cologne, thinks he has …
Jim, a pale-skinned youngster, always wanted to be a cowboy—often wearing a Stetson hat, trying on his dad’s boots, sitting on unhorsed saddles, and pretending to ride. As he grows up on his family’s cattle ranch, he learns how to ride a horse for real, and even how to rope cattle—although this last skill doesn’t …
“Few things unite a town like a high school football win.” So observes Phil, the 49-year-old narrator of this debut novel that provides a keenly observed account of two eventful high school football seasons, one in 1986 and the other in the Covid-19 year of 2022. Phil is also the name of the author, who …
Moriarty’s son, Reid, is autistic, a fact that touches every part of both their lives. Recognizing a need for community, she gathered a group of fellow “autism moms” so that they could provide one another with support, friendship, and a whole lot of humor; they called themselves the Laughter Alliance. Moriarty’s guide draws from the …
Pollack (1934-2008) was that rare Hollywood figure who was gifted at directing, acting, and producing. In this incisive collection of interviews, film scholars McGilligan and Cronin convincingly argue that “for forty years, from his first picture to his last, Pollack sustained a busier, longer, more fruitful, and more consistent career than many in his peer …
As a member of EWF during its heyday, Johnson was arguably the band’s most important member outside of founder Maurice White. Blending Motown-style songwriting with the harder-edged R&B of Parliament-Funkadelic, the group owned the charts in the 1970s with hits like “Shining Star,” “After the Love Has Gone,” and “September.” They were a beloved live …
Bonebag has grown up in the Scura min Scurse, a gloomy, threatening forest, with his strangely cold parents, Modor and Faeder. His is a life of isolation, deprivation, and a profound lack of love. And yet, Bonebag seems to know what it means to be happy—how can that be? One day, he finds a golden …
It’s not unusual to hear of widespread ecological devastation in soundbite horror stories: Amazon rainforests are disappearing at the astonishing rate of an acre a second; the world’s ocean will soon hold more plastic by weight than fish. It’s both shocking and numbing. Lent (The Patterning Instinct, 2017, and The Web of Meaning, 2021) interrupts …
In her introduction, contributor Julie Sondra Decker notes that the portrayal of romantic love in literature “as a prerequisite to fulfillment and even personhood [is] disturbing.” In this collection, aro characters who don’t experience romantic attraction face not only arophobia, but also misunderstandings; compulsory romance; feelings of being broken, lacking, or othered; and disappointment from …
Most Americans have heard of Frank Lloyd Wright, a name once synonymous with American architecture. Wright’s buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, are rightfully considered masterpieces. But few these days know that he had been an irresistible magnet for the tabloids of his day, making him one of …
