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…

Art Monster: On the Impossibility of New York by Marin Kosut

Columbia Review by David Starkey If you’ve ever had a friend who is brilliant, super-sarcastic, notices everything, can be incredibly mean but always employs that anger in the service of…

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019-2022 by Peter Schjeldahl

Abrams Review by Walter Cummins Peter Schjeldahl ends his essay “The Art of Dying”—written when he was well aware of his terminal lung cancer—with a recognition that “Dying is my…

Looking At Mexico/Mexico Looks Back By Janet Sternburg with Comments by Jose Alberto Romero Romano

Distanz Review by Brian Tanguay Not long after receiving a copy of Looking at Mexico/Mexico Looks Back, Claudia Sheinbaum was overwhelmingly elected as Mexico’s first female president, a milestone in…