“Looking out at the ice-cold water all around me I can’t feel any traces of that other place” –Vampire Weekend, “Diplomat’s Son” Less than a year ago, The New Yorker published Ronan Farrow’s article “From Aggressive Overtures To Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories.” It propelled the young journalist, son of Mia Farrow, into the spotlight, which wasn’t the point; Farrow insisted that the stage belonged to the brave women who had been willing to risk their careers, and more, to tell their stories. […]
The Way Out Is Through
An under-remarked facet of Stephen King’s genius is his eye. Like John Updike or Joseph Conrad, he sees more than we do, then carefully sets down what he sees, until a bright yellow bra strap or red lips moving in a black goatee become sharp, silvery hooks. Try and free yourself. The Outsider, in which that eye sees quite a bit, is at least two novels, imperfectly grafted. The first–and best–centers on a Little League baseball coach arrested for a terrible violation: the rape and murder […]
Murky and Dim
This Fritz Leiber novel, published in 1977, seems both of and outside of its time. It appeared after The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, and Carrie, three books that reinvigorated the genre, but it reaches back to earlier traditions. The slim but still overly long novel tells of Franz Westen, a San Francisco resident who catches sight, through his binoculars, of a strange form. After some scene-setting, he sets off to track the creature down. Looking back at his apartment through those same binoculars, he’s startled to […]