Page-Turner
Criticism, contentions, and conversation inspired by books and the writing life.
When Preachers Were Rock Stars
A classic New Yorker account of the Henry Ward Beecher adultery trial recalls a time in America that seems both incomprehensible and familiar.
When the World Goes Quiet
“The Hearing Test” probes the inner life of a narrator stricken by sudden deafness.
Percival Everett’s Philosophical Reply to “Huckleberry Finn”
In his new novel, “James,” Everett explores how an emblem of American slavery can write himself into being.
How Lucy Sante Became the Person She Feared
In her memoir of transitioning in her sixties, the writer assesses the cost of suppressing her identity for decades.
The Bartender and the Lost Literary Masterpiece
How a Manchester native rescued “Caliban Shrieks,” Jack Hilton’s working-class opus.
What Turned Crossword Constructing Into a Boys’ Club?
For decades, the pursuit was identified with first-wave feminists and bored housewives. How did it come to be defined by a pervasive gender gap?
Our Favorite Bookstores in New York City
Where we shop for books in the Big Apple.
Diary of an Abomination
In an illustrated depiction of a young girl’s self-discovery, monstrosity is only skin-deep.
“Do I Have to Come Here Injured or Dead?”
Keldy Mabel Gonzáles Brebe de Zúniga was one of the first mothers separated from her children at the border by the Trump Administration. The cruelty she suffered in the United States was matched only by what she was forced to flee in Honduras.
Robert Glück’s Gloriously Unreliable Memorial to a Lost Love
“About Ed” is a literary monument that harnesses memoir’s emotional honesty while indulging fiction’s stylistic latitude.