FROM THE MAGAZINE

September 2023

Books

The roots of J.K. Rowling’s contrarianism

How did the woman who taught a generation to stand up to the Ministry of Magic betray liberal orthodoxy?

By Mitchell Jackson

From the Magazine

Book Review

Zadie Smith’s latest novel is glittering, grand and powerful

The Fraud is a consciously (but not self-consciously) literary novel

By Philip Womack

From the Magazine

Book Review

How missing persons cases work in the wild

The real science of searching in nature is the most interesting — and disturbing — part of Lankford’s account

By Katrina Gulliver

From the Magazine

Book Review

Maureen Ryan exposes the Hollywood horror show

At the end of Burn it Down, it’s hard not to wish that the industry could simply be shut down and rebooted all over again

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Book Review

Drew Gilpin Faust, a rebel with a cause

In Necessary Trouble the historian and former president of Harvard has given us a clear-eyed account of a vexed era

By Adam Begley

From the Magazine

Television

Apple’s foray into streaming

Apple TV+ will not be the next Netflix, and that is the whole point

By Ross Anderson

From the Magazine

Film

Finding the warmth in Alfred Hitchcock’s filmography

When I look at the Hitchcock movies, I don’t see icy detachment. Instead what strikes me is their intimacy, gentleness and passion

By Mark Cousins

From the Magazine

Theater

Here Lies Love is too scared to be serious

The musical is like the disco ball that spins above its audience: beautiful but fractured. And, at its core, hollow

By Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

From the Magazine

Film

The death of Superman

How Hollywood killed the American hero

By Stephen L. Miller

From the Magazine

Art

The demands and joys of contemporary art 

Artist Alberto Guerrero’s career has been driven by a desire to look for what is behind everything that we perceive at present

By William Newton

From the Magazine