Also of interest...in romance deciphered
I Do and I Don’t
by Jeanine Basinger (Knopf, $30)
Jeanine Basinger’s study of marriage in the movies is “never less than fascinating,” said Sara Vilkomerson in Entertainment Weekly. Deconstruct-ing a century of cinema, from pre–World War I slapstick to 2010’s The Kids Are All Right, the film historian identifies many of the tropes Hollywood relies on in depicting marriage and finds today’s screenwriters increasingly willing to give love stories ambiguous endings. The result is a “thoroughly entertaining” lesson in history and pop psychology.
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Love in the Time of Algorithms
by Dan Slater (Current, $26)
The rise of computer-based matchmaking provides “rich anthropological loam” for journalist Dan Slater, said Philip Delves Broughton in The Wall Street Journal. Beginning with an early Match.com prototype (a 1964 system invented by a forlorn Harvard undergrad), Slater explores how romance has been transformed by technology—creating previously impossible happy endings but also encouraging groups of American men to go shopping for wives in distant, impoverished lands.
The Last Girlfriend on Earth
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by Simon Rich (Reagan Arthur, $20)
Some of the 30 humorous short tales in Simon Rich’s new collection are “all punch line,” said Mythili Rao in TheDailyBeast.com. The male in a coed astronaut team proposes a study on the effects of zero gravity on human mating; dogs search for their soul mates through Craigslist’s “missed connections” service. But even when some of Rich’s sketches about the quest for love touch messier emotions, there’s “an endearing simplicity” about his outlook. Love, in his world, is still capable of conquering all.
Prosperous Friends
by Christine Schutt (Grove/Atlantic, $24)
In Christine Schutt’s third novel, the gradual dissolution of a marriage is chronicled in “terse sentences that read like poetry,” said Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times. So austere is the language that much of what’s come to divide a vain writer and his depressed wife goes unexplained. But by cutting from one well-wrought scene to another, Schutt keeps the novel moving at a lively pace as the characters come to understand the divide between self-image and the things that each has done.
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Riefenstahl: a 'gripping and incrementally nauseating' documentary
The Week Recommends Andres Veiel's nuanced film examines whether the controversial film director was complicit in Nazi war crimes
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Dianaworld: the 'cultural phenomenon' behind the People's Princess
The Week Recommends 'Very fine' book examines the cultural groups who once admired her, and the legacy she left behind
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Earth roasts on 'Hot Ones: Climate Edition' | May 15 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Thursday's editorial cartoons feature trickle-down economics, Pope Leo XIV's music choice, MAGA's reaction to the 'woke Pope', Donald Trump's Amazon wishlist, and the job market for 2025 college graduates.
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-ups
feature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”