“The acquisition of secret knowledge is one of the central pleasures of the spy novel, and Kushner works several unusual varieties of such knowledge into the novel’s propulsive plot.” newrepublic.com/article/185282…

Rachel Kushner's spy wins trust the way Joan Didion did as a reporter: by making herself so “unobtrusive” that her subjects “forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests.” newrepublic.com/article/185282…

Full bleed back cover author portraits were once a thing — and still have the power to reach us, even after the author has gone: — John le Carré (1979) and Susan Sontag (1968)

Like the MI5, AppleTV+ is an elite counterintelligence service. They’ve been running a covert op called SLOW HORSES for 4 seasons, and you might not even know it exists. For The New Republic I wrote about the best secret show on TV. newrepublic.com/article/185489…

From Phillip Maciak's new piece on Slow Horses: "In June 2024, according to Nielsen, Apple TV+ accounted for just 0.24 percent of viewing on U.S.-based smart TVs". Netflix is 8%. Roku - Roku! - is 1.5%! newrepublic.com/article/185489…

"Amber Thurman waited in pain, worried about what would happen to her 6-year-old son, as doctors monitored her infection spreading, her blood pressure sinking and her organs beginning to fail. It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate. By then, it was too late."

In July our UK distributor, Marston Book Services, filed for bankruptcy. They owe Verso nearly £1 million for book sales stretching back to January. This is a major blow to Verso.

Remember when Disney claimed a man signed his wife's life away when he got a trial of Disney+? Uber is trying the same thing. A kid placed an order on Uber eats, and now a judge is saying the parents can't sue Uber over a car crash. news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/kid…

I wrote about my theory that INDUSTRY is set in actual, literal Hell. On HBO's damned souls, distressed assets, and the shades of 25 years of prestige TV. For The New Republic newrepublic.com/article/186251…

"Are the traders who work at Pierpoint & Co. investment Phillip Maciak on Industry as "the sort of prestige drama that belongs to this era of microwave leftovers." newrepublic.com/article/186251…

The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the inventors of Microsoft Word's "Track Changes" and "Comment" functions, for their work championing the literature that "takes place in the margins," celebrating the hidden iceberg that dwells below the tip of life

Last March, our beloved daycare was evicted. This is what happened in the days, weeks, and months that followed: thecut.com/article/accide…

from the diary of virginia woolf

for The New Republic, i reviewed tim shenk's new book on the failure of third way liberalism and the consultants who oversaw it newrepublic.com/article/185791…

So great to see Left Adrift in excellent company here newrepublic.com/article/188911…

"What is most discomforting about Lynch is not his foregrounding of abuse, venality or the general rot that gnaws away at the edges of America’s middle-class, white-picket-fence fantasies. It is his profound—and profoundly unfashionable—moral seriousness." newrepublic.com/article/190343…