Celebrating Community
You don’t choose to attend a performance at the floating cabaret, the Avalon. The Avalon chooses you. And you’re not only the guest of honor—you’re the only guest. Every song, every dance, every act is written just for you. But the invitation comes at a high price: step on board once, you risk leaving your old life behind forever. This […]
Cemeteries freak some people out. My mother, who grew up in Queens, is still traumatized from an experience she had as a little girl. Her family visited dead relatives every Sunday. Once, she peeked into a mausoleum window and saw a baby carriage. She never got over it. I grew up differently. Perhaps as a result of my mother’s unhappy […]
Hearing someone tell you about a dream they had can make your eyes glaze over. It could be because dreams follow their own logic, unique to each of us. Dreams can feel specific, urgent and compelling after we’ve experienced them, but vague, meandering and uninteresting in the retelling. Cartoonist Roz Chast understands this completely—but she still wants to tell you […]
Review of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride (Riverhead Books; 2023; 386 pages; $28) Reviewed by Michael Quinn Two kinds of people live in Chicken Hill, Pennsylvania: immigrant Jews and Blacks. These two groups eye each other warily, thinking they have nothing in common. Neither is especially thrilled to be there. It’s a rundown place, cut off […]
Review of “Kappa,” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell and Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda Did you go on any trips this summer? Traveling has many benefits. You might interact with different people, learn a new language, and discover things about another culture’s values. Whenever you go someplace new, you see the world with fresh eyes—and sometimes the […]
Review of “J.C. Leyendecker: American Imagist,” by Laurence S. Cutler and Judy Goffman Cutler Review by Michael Quinn What are you wearing as you read this? A shirt from Under Armour? Leggings from Lululemon? Sneakers? Flip-flops? A hundred years ago, the world was different, and we dressed differently. But it was around this time that advertising first started to get […]
Review of Maud Martha, by Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) was an American poet and the first Black person to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. Her award-winning book of poems, Annie Allen, focused on the life of an ordinary Black girl living in Chicago’s South Side. Brooks returned to this subject in the only novel she ever published, Maud […]
Review of Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew, by Jeremy Dauber Review by Michael Quinn Born in Brooklyn in 1926, Melvin Kaminsky was the youngest of four boys whom the fatherless family doted on. “Until I was six, my feet didn’t touch the ground,” he remembers. He was quick with a smile, a natural mimic, and good at making people laugh. He […]
An Interview with Bookseller and Novelist Emma Straub, by Michael Quinn Once a bookseller at the legendary BookCourt, today Emma Straub has a bookstore of her own — with two locations. Six years ago, she and her husband Michael Fusco-Straub opened Books Are Magic on Smith Street in Cobble Hill. Last fall, they opened a second store on Montague Street […]
Review of War Diary, by Yevgenia Belorusets, translated by Greg Nissan Right now, as you read this, there’s a war going on. Maybe you know every detail. Maybe you’ve skimmed the headlines. Maybe it feels like it has nothing to do with you. But what if the war was happening where you lived? You might think, This can’t be happening. […]