FROM THE MAGAZINE

May 2023

Book Review

Who was the real Martin Luther King, Jr.?

King: A Life is the first comprehensive biography of the black civil rights hero to appear in more than thirty years

By David J. Garrow

From the Magazine

Books

What makes a novel funny?

In search of the great American comic novel

By Fergus Butler-Gallie

From the Magazine

Book Review

Curtis Sittenfeld is the great American observer

In Romantic Comedy, we get her insight into a new phenomenon — celebrity of the modern age

By Harry Mount

From the Magazine

Book Review

Madness and cannibalism with David Grann

The author guides us through a military operation gone horribly awry

By James Snell

From the Magazine

Theater

Broadway brings back Bob Fosse’s Dancin’

The first revival of Dancin’ on Broadway is a treasure trove for Fosse fanatics

By Robert S. Erickson

From the Magazine

Book Review

Ernest Hilbert weathers the storms of life and fatherhood

Storm Swimmer is a collection both haunted and nurtured by waters

By Peter Vertacnick

From the Magazine

Book Review

Forbidden love in the Great War

If Alice Winn’s material is familiar, she handles it with skill and panache

By Philip Womack

From the Magazine

Theater

Noël Coward, the English playwright who loved all things American

In order to take over the globe, he had to succeed in the largest English-language market

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Art

Is the New York subway the city’s best gallery?

Beneath the Big Apple’s streets, the MTA has amassed the largest collection of public art in the world

By Adrian Brune

From the Magazine

Art

Why are there no paintings in Star Wars?

They are not talked about, reflected upon or even alluded to

By William Newton

From the Magazine

Music Review

Lana Del Rey’s new record: samey, stale, sterile

Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd could have been better

By Francesca Peacock

From the Magazine

Film

The importance of going to the movies

Something happens when you watch a movie alone together, laughing, crying and fidgeting in unison

By Nicky Otis Smith

From the Magazine