Proust lover Trevor Cribben Merrill How do authors get away with shallow, shabby, venal, morally deficient characters who appall us … but nevertheless, we read on? Trevor Cribben Merrill , author of Minor Indignities , explains: “the ‘spirit of the author’ shields the reader from the characters, ‘drawing the poison’ from their negative qualities of […]
‘A Clock stopped’ is not one of Emily Dickinson’s best-known poems, but it uses its central metaphor to explore one of the most salient themes of her poetry: death. Dickinson uses the image of the stopped clock to reflect on the ending of a life and what this means. The clock in the poem is […]
Beach in January. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Licensed Under CC0 4.0 . Every December day that I’m in Maine I swim in the ocean and my husband tells me I’m insane. The temperature keeps dropping. I get two respiratory infections, a twenty-four-hour stomach thing. Why? he says to me. Mom , the children say. They […]
negative tone words Are you familiar with the concept of negative tone words? The mood and emotion conveyed through writing is a key component of what makes it effective, and tone words are a powerful tool at your disposal. This guide focuses exclusively on one type of tone words – negative tone words . These […]
Photo by Yannick Pulver on Unsplash I find the idea of starting something new thrilling. I have learned to embrace the fear that comes along with it. Every time I sit down to begin a project, I always think about those people who go to Coney Island on New Year’s Day—the members of the Polar […]
Photo: Bryan Tarnowski/Bryan Tarnowski Every time I turn around, Jami Attenberg has published another novel or memoir. But I do not begrudge her this, because I know how she does it. For years, Jami has enlisted conspirators in writing a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Today, she’s out with another book […]
Showrunner/writer/director/EP Issa López on the set of “True Detective: Night Country.” If you love to yarn-wall a show, True Detective: Night Country gives plenty of reason to dust off the pushpins. With the premiere episode, HBO/Max has resurrected the dormant crime anthology series, offering a fresh mystery deep in the icy Alaskan terrain. Jodie Foster […]
An illustration shows two faces in silhouette, overlaid with the outlines of a map of Libya. A crescent moon, a star and red and green swatches of color, hinting at the national flag, can be seen as well. MY FRIENDS, by Hisham Matar In the works of the Libyan-born writer Hisham Matar, a few subjects […]
Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne Keep LARB free! Donations matched through Jan. 13! LARB publishes daily without a paywall as part of our mission to make rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts freely accessible to the public. Donate today and your gift will go […]
When I was twenty-one, I became friends with a group of models living in London and for a while we ran wild together, night after night in the city. The champagne was endless, the venues exclusive, and the stories they told me were spectacular. They were stories of excessive fees paid for lunch dates and […]
