John Cotter champions one of the most promising debuts in years, Joshua Harmon’s bold, symphonic novel Quinnehtukqut.
The Dream After the Nightmare
When crises like 9/11 erupt, says Susan Faludi, America’s women wind up in lockdown. Joanna Scutts finds the national unconscious as unbalanced as ever in The Terror Dream.
Costly Friendships
Aside from the stammering anger they’ve stirred up, have John W. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt added anything substantial to the Middle East debate? Plenty, Greg Waldmann writes, but not for the reasons they wanted.
Memento Mori
Sam Sacks contrasts the Nazis’ murderous theft of Irène Némirovsky’s life with the bright, redeeming light of her newly translated novel Fire in the Blood.
Pehin Hanska ktepi
George Custer knew damn well how many Indians he’d be fighting at Little Bighorn, but the myths of that battle have overcrowded the truth. To sort one from the other, Steve Donoghue charges into a shelf of Custerology.
Pawtucket
A poem by Daniel Bouchard
Two From Tupelo Press
Two poets gather up the treasures of the past, one by tossing them in a pile, the other by building a gallery. Chad Reynolds digs into new books by Amy England and Priscilla Sneff.
Peer Review:
Enter Sophist
James Wood, Christopher Hitchens, Michiko Kakutani, and many others have competed to put forth the definitive word on Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost. Sam Sacks is off to the races with them in this regular feature.
Under the Microscope
Andrea Barrett’s novels and stories have been quiet, restrained affairs, but, as Karen Vanuska reports, her new book The Air We Breathe is given a stimulating shot in the arm by the intrusion of World War I.
Noises in the Dark
Uncanny Bodies identifies an early affinity between talking pictures and the horror genre. Adam Golaski finds this chillingly true, but sees Robert Spadoni as the wrong man to explain it.
Oh!
A good man’s life is rare and pure enough to revisit for its own sake. Steve Donoghue looks back on why Theodore Roosevelt meant so much to so many, and how he earned his spot on that big rock.
Our Open Letters Monthly Quiz!
The cover photo for November is “New York Night” by Jeffrey Eaton. An amateur photographer, Jeffrey lives in New York City and works as a fundraiser for Lighthouse International. His photo “Fort Tabor, 2006″ was featured in the April issue of Open Letters.
Coming Next Month: Open Letters’ first serialization: Adam Golaski’s Green, plus Sam Sacks on Marilynne Robinson, Steve Donoghue on War and Peace, a poem by Clayton Eshleman, and Jeff Eaton on No Tell Books
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