America's Most Critical Journal since 1999
EPISODE ONE: WAKE UP A garage poorly adapted to look like a call-in studio. There’s a second-hand table with a large telephone on it. Behind the desk is a chalkboard with “The Men’s Self-Help Line” crudely printed in red chalk. There’s two armchairs ... More »
By Sean Kenealy “My name’s Roy and I destroy!” I know, it’s a silly slogan, but it turns heads and it’s helped me get ahead in this crazy business. Need a TV destroyed? I got you. Need a couch destroyed? No problem. I even did a refrigerator once in ... More »
FADE IN In a restaurant just this side of Oslo, a middle-aged American couple sit cozy by a crackling fireplace. MADGE David, this julekake bread is marvelous. DAVID It’s correctly pronounced yul-ya-kawk-ya. And that resinous fragrance is cardamom. Tr... More »
By Casey Alexander Day 1 Lately I’ve become wayward; there’s a layer of grime on my soul. A lack of progress, a certain stagnation. An unsettling realization: I have ceased to be my own hero. Plus I have a three-day weekend coming up and no particular plan... More »
What Do You Do When You Discover You’re a Jew? By Blechner Dedicated to the work of Franz Kafka, that flickering light showing others a way. “…for human reality, to act is to be, and to cease to act is to cease to be.” Being and N... More »
by Jeffrey Meyers Jim, my greatly admired friend, taught at Berkeley and was the brilliant biographer of Thomas Mann. I’d reviewed his earlier volumes; and when I left teaching and moved back to northern California, I looked him up and we immediately hit i... More »
By Lynn Levin 9:15 a.m. The revolt against the humanities faculty begins as student rebels halt professors in the middle of class and usher them to the quad. Some of the professors assume that they are being led to an assembly honoring them for their service. ... More »
By Brandon Cole Bronton “Yes, Your Honor, I admit I was in that bodega and I shot the clerk four times in the chest when he wouldn’t hand over the money, wasn’t much money either so why he wouldn’t do what I said don’t make sense, but I shot him in s... More »
by Casey Alexander It was the bugle that turned my head. Its manly, imposing tones, and the majestic figure that held it. His traditional silk caftan; the silver birds in his hair. The documentary detailed his training, followed him through making up and his e... More »
by Jeffrey Meyers Though it was part of my self-image, I reluctantly decided to sell my 2013 silver-grey Mercedes. It was becoming more difficult for me to get in and out of the car. The very low front was easily scraped and damaged. The car had to be to... More »
by Fred Russell Amalia Knight, M.Sc., was a ghostwriter. She had been ghostwriting since her elementary school days, when she had patched up compositions for her classmates, and then through high school and the university, when she had written them from scratc... More »
By E. A. Bourland The People of the Fire Moss by the River were at war with the People of the Misty Forest, and the war was bloody and destructive, as war ever was. Both peoples were on the verge of famine because none of the fishers could fish the river, and ... More »