A Ghost is Born

In a new biography, David Foster Wallace mostly emerges as a sympathetic figure, a troubled man whose fearsome intelligence seemed only to exponentially increase his unhappiness.

Bitter Truths

A new generation of Slovak poets has rejected the central themes of the communist and Christian past, now seen as lies or illusions. But the truths of post-communism are hard on the spirit.

Losing Our Cool

After the Gold Rush, after the slump, perhaps Ireland could just learn to relax, and regain its creativity and its cool.

Do You Believe In Magic?

The truth is never pure and rarely simple, and in Macbeth fair is foul and foul is fair.