Swan Isle Review by David Starkey As someone who has spent a fair bit of time in the Eternal City, I can say that in order to truly love Rome,…
Category: Art & Music
Memories of Distant Mountains by Orhan Pamuk
Knopf Review by David Starkey Writing in the New York Times, Dwight Garner dismissed Orhan Pamuk’s Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009-2022 as “breezy and frictionless,” “a book of…
An Interview with Sonicbond Publisher Stephen Lambe
Interview by David Starkey Stephen Lambe founded Sonicbond Publishing in 2018, after spending most of his career working for independent non-fiction publishers. During his time in the industry, Lambe learned…
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case
Grand Central Review by George Yatchisin Given she’s enchanted by fairy tales, it’s only fitting that Neko Case’s memoir The Harder I Fight the More I Love You leaves its…
Portraits in Life and Death by Peter Hujar
Liveright Review by David Starkey Originally published in 1976, Peter Hujar’s Portraits in Life and Death might well be called Portraits of Life in Death or Portraits of Death in…
A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman by Robert Hilburn
Hachette Review by George Yatchisin A tunesmith with a con, not a song, in his heart, Randy Newman is a quintessential American composer. And like America, what a bill of goods…
Feint of Heart: Art Writings, 1982-2002 by Dave Hickey
David Zwirner Review by David Starkey Like Greil Marcus writing about music, or Jed Perl and the late Peter Schjeldahl writing about art, Dave Hickey’s essays are interesting whether or…
Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism by Sebastian Smee
Norton Review by David Starkey I bought my copy of Sebastian Smee’s Paris in Ruins: Love, War, and the Birth of Impressionism after visiting an exhibition at the National Gallery…
The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing by Adam Moss
Penguin Review by David Starkey I first saw Adam Moss’s The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing in a bookstore in Montpelier, Vermont, and immediately, like Wallace Stevens’s…
Webbed Skies by Melissa Cody
Museu de Arte de São Paulo / KMEC Review by David Starkey Webbed Skies is the monograph accompanying a recent exhibition of Melissa Cody’s weavings at the Museum of Modern…