The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion's memoir of a year-gone-bad is brilliant but at times oddly unaffecting.
Hemingway’s Beard
If secular Saddam is smug it because Iraq’s current state of affairs rationalizes the intentions of his tyranny.
Dead Man
Only Jarmusch puts Mitchum, Depp, and Iggy Pop in a mystical B&W Western.
Mind the Birds
The flu terrifies because it’s familiar, the perfect harbor for vicarious worry, both imaginable and medieval.
Pollock
Harris' labor of love yields a vivid, damaged Pollock.
Requiem
Rome had a peculiar effect on the British men I once knew. It appeared to operate in a guilt-free zone.
Curvaceous, Cassandra, vulva
Mastodontic. Plethora. Sagacious. Words are first passage to adulthood.
Saffron Fever
Saffron, that pungent little flower, is making a subtle comeback on Italian tables.
Slow Students
It takes Italian students five years longer to graduate than their counterparts.
Espresso Love
Nobody, it seems, is supposed to order a cappuccino after mid-morning.
The streetwalker
I love Italian women for the pride they take in their appearance.