Articles by Sonya Chung
September 24, 2010
Fall Book Picks (Part 2): Shop Class As Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford 2
“By the mere fact that they [mechanics] stand ready to fix things,” Crawford writes, “as a class they are an affront to the throwaway society. Just as important, the kind of thinking they do, if they are good, offers a counterweight to the culture of narcissism.”
September 22, 2010
Every Word of The Great Gatsby…On Stage 0
In this week’s New Yorker, Rebecca Mead writes about the 8-hour staging of the full text of The Great Gatsby – “Gatz” – at the Public Theater. She and actor Scott Shepherd discuss it on a podcast.
September 15, 2010
Fall Book Picks (Part 1): Life Work by Donald Hall 2
“Once, in a headlong sentence I clearly intended to say ‘life,’” Hall writes of a therapy session during dark years of marital meltdown and alcoholism, “but by mistake…said ‘work’ instead.” This recollection illuminates the theme of Hall’s beautifully crafted meditation cum memoir.
August 30, 2010
The Great Gatsby Revisited 17
What struck me most is how The Great Gatsby as a “literary treasure,” as something we refer to as a classic, is so much less than what the novel actually is – which is something both gorgeously and impeccably wrought.
July 27, 2010
Literary Endings: Pretty Bows, Blunt Axes, and Modular Furniture 13
It’s tempting to imagine a linear spectrum of ending “types,” with tied-up-in-a-bow on one end, chopped-off-with-a-blunt-ax on the other. But really, there are so many different kinds of literary endings. What constitutes “satisfying” for different readers?
