Articles and Reviews

Salon

  • "Brideshead Revisited"
    No expense has been spared in this lavish, streamlined adaptation, but is there such a thing as too much good taste?
  • How to read the James Wood way
    The fiercely talented critic takes us on an illuminating tour of fiction -- but there's a hole in his plot.
  • Answering terror with terror
    In "The Dark Side," Jane Mayer chronicles the terrible, destructive decisions the Bush administration made in the name of fighting terrorism.
  • Jesus loves you
    The religious right is celebrating sex to stroke its conservative message. Liberals better rise to a secular defense soon.
  • Gore Vidal's inconvenient truths
    "The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal" reminds us that this combative political provocateur is also one of our finest literary critics.
  • Scott McClellan comes clean
    Of course the White House couldn't see the revealing "What Happened" coming. It was McClellan's job as press secretary to conceal himself.
  • Kiss my ass
    For years America has desperately tried to outlaw sodomy and other sex acts like fellatio and cunnilingus. What are we so scared of?
  • Summer reads
    True confessions: From a trek through the American West to a life filled with music, these memoirs will whisk you away.
  • Are you too dumb to vote?
    Sure, ignorance is rampant among the American electorate, as Rick Shenkman argues. But without The People, there would be no Democracy as we know it.
  • Summer reads
    Chick chat: From a black-humored romantic romp to the tale of a single woman flirting her way around the world, these novels make perfect beach companions.
  • Scott McClellan comes clean
    Of course the White House couldn't see the revealing "What Happened" coming. It was McClellan's job as press secretary to conceal himself.
  • Summer reads
    Killer thrillers: From an art-world conspiracy to a campus murder to the gripping tale of a missing child, these recommendations will add suspense to your beach book list.
  • Finale wrap-up: "American Idol"
    America finally gets it right, and the best man wins!
  • Who killed the literary critic?
    In the age of blogging, great critics appear to be on life support. Salon's book reviewers discuss snobbery, how to make criticism fun and the need for cultural gatekeepers.
  • Gay marriage, so what?
    Maybe I should be more grateful, but the California Supreme Court hasn't told me anything I don't already know.
  • Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck
    In "The Age of Reagan," liberal historian Sean Wilentz reckons with the enormous, ongoing influence of the teflon president.
  • Is everything we know about American history wrong?
    Forget the Pilgrims. America's roots are older and more twisted, what Tony Horwitz calls a "primordial slime of false starts and mutations."
  • Legal appeal
    Long before there was "Law and Order," a TV criminal defense attorney named Perry Mason brought high courtroom drama to the masses.
  • Flagging America's racial divide
    An infamous 1976 photo captured a violent encounter between white Bostonians and a black lawyer during an anti-busing rally. A new book explains why this image continues to haunt and define us.
  • The witty detective
    Karen Joy Fowler's follow-up to bestseller "The Jane Austen Book Club" is a detective novel about a mystery writer whose tales come back to haunt her.
  • Can Stephen Colbert Save America?
    A new book argues that Colbert, Jon Stewart and Bill Maher are good for democracy. But is it taking late-night comedy too seriously?
  • Seduced by the Dalai Lama
    He may be a global icon of goodness, as Pico Iyer's biography reminds us. But is the Dalai Lama the political leader Tibet needs?
  • Attention, all you memoir fabulists!
    In light of recent scandals, we will now require arrest records and stool samples from all autobiographers. And can someone fact-check the Gospels?
  • Die, Daddy, Die!
    After a lifetime of competing with his father, writer David Shields has had enough. But the aged patriarch remains "cussedly, maddeningly alive."
  • Are You Going to Hell?
    Former born-again Christian John Marks journeyed back into the evangelical America he'd left behind and discovered the promise -- and limitations -- of faith.
  • YouTube, j'accuse!
    Controversial critic and disgraced blogger Lee Siegel rages against Internet culture and blogofascism.
  • What Mary Cheney should expect while she's expecting
    Forget morning sickness and weight gain and get ready for nine months of right-wing hand-wringing and embarrassed silence.
  • Open the closets on Capitol Hill
    Silence about gay politicians is a relic of an era when gayness meant secrecy and shame. It's a disservice to gay people, to voters, and to the politicians themselves.
  • Who is Louis Bayard?
    I won on "Jeopardy." I lost on "Jeopardy." For consolation, I turned to the tart insights of 74-game champion and master-geek Ken Jennings.
  • Honey, I Read "The Stranger"!
    The president read Camus' "The Stranger" on vacation in Texas, and now you can read the book report he wrote for Laura!
  • Who needs a spanky?
    The exploitative "Who's Your Daddy?" is too stupid to get worked up over. But Americans might want to question the Fox idea of family.
  • "Being told we can't is making a lot of homos wanna"
    In "The Commitment," sex columnist Dan Savage explores what gay marriage actually feels, sounds and smells like -- but should he tie the knot?
  • A dying breed
    In the new world of body-slamming right-wing politics, what's a snooty, fake-patrician über-WASP conservative like George Will to do?
  • Culture war is hell
    Sept. 11 may have brought the country together as never before -- but that hasn't fooled William Bennett. He is going cave by cave until every humanist and moral relativist has been smoked out.
  • Come again!
    Our inn had a guest book that should have been rated X.

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