Selected Criticism

Essays

“The Perils and Pleasures of Rereading”
The Millions, November 2011

“Is This Any Fun?”
The Believer, October 2011, Richard Poirier (teaser only)

“Incoherent, Admiring, Affectionate Brothers”
The Second Pass, August 24, 2010 (the James brothers)

“An Original Adventure”
The Believer, September 2008 (Elizabeth Hardwick)

“Critical Intimacy”
The Believer, April 2006 (Susan Sontag)

“Storytelling: Great Love and Great Work in the Biopic”
Radical Society, July 2002

“The Mitford Sisters’ World”
Radical Society, April 2002

“The Long Prosaic Loaf of Daily Bread”
Feed, October 27, 2000 (Sylvia Plath)

“Revenge of the Nerds”
Feed, September 5, 2000 (Freaks and Geeks)

 

Book Reviews

 Why Read Moby-Dick?
by Nathaniel Philbrick, The Rumpus, October 20, 2011

A Book of Secrets
by Michael Holroyd, New York Newsday, August 18, 2011

Iphigenia in Forest Hills
by Janet Malcolm, The Second Pass, April 26, 2011

The Hypochondriacs
by Brian Dillon, The Second Pass, February 9, 2010

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina
by David Hadju, Entertainment Weekly, June 8, 2001

 

Interviews

Rebecca Solnit and Susan Schwartzenberg (authors of Hollow City)
Feed, January 24, 2001

Geoff Dyer
Chickfactor 16, 2005