The Tricky Sentimentality of Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge
The Vietnamese American literary classic undermines the readers’ expectations of a redemptive narrative of immigration and memory.
We Dream of Genie
In antebellum America, the voyages and adventures of Sinbad and Aladdin in the Arabian Nights nourished a young nation's dreams.
Isabel Allende’s “Two Words”
Many have tried to guess the two magical words whispered by Allende’s character Belisa Crepusculario, but the author has yet to reveal them.
The Plagiarism Scandal That Ended Nella Larsen’s Career
Larsen's 1930 story "Sanctuary" had a similar plot to an earlier British story. So what? Perhaps the tale never really belonged to either writer.
Would You Let Your Servant Read This Book?
How the ban on D. H. Lawrence's book Lady Chatterley's Lover was reversed.
Why Mystery Fiction Is So Engaging
Tracking down the killer appeal of the hit show Only Murders in the Building.
The Women (Real and Imagined) Resisting Caudillos
In Latin America and the Caribbean, women's groups have acted to oppose military dictatorships. In fiction, their roles are rarely that of protagonist.
The Early American Radical Fiction of John Lithgow
In the early 1800s, the Scottish immigrant wrote an anonymous tract imagining equality. He was worried about the brand-new American republic.
Rare 1969 Story from The Queen’s Gambit Author Walter Tevis
In this short story a graduate student makes a deal with the devil: Write my dissertation and my soul is yours.
Life in the Iron Mills as Fiction of the “Close-Outsider Witness”
Rebecca Harding Davis had no firsthand experience of iron mills. Neither does her nameless narrator.