It’s often the case that the most hard-bitten war correspondents write the most heartbreaking books. That’s because they go to dangerous battle-zones—with their carnage and destruction—to which the more timorous correspondents hesitate to take themselves. And as a consequence, these toughest of reporters see things that others don’t see—others, that is, who aren’t themselves trapped

“No one, it appears, was free to just parent as they wanted to parent—free of the web of social ties that both gave their lives meaning and set firm constraints around expected behaviors.” This observation from a new book about the town of Poplar Grove—the fictional name for a real, wealthy community where there have

March 2024 Dear (if I may be so bold) Ray, I read Jonathan R. Eller’s collection of your correspondence, from the fan mail you sent in your youth to the letters and emails you sent in 2007. Eller writes that, before your death in 2012, you approved of his publishing some of your letters: “Oh