Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

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This issue sponsored by Other Press

This week on nybooks.com: Libya breaking apart, a new opening with Iran, art that refuses to grow up, Thomas Pynchon, Virginia Woolf, and the experience of solitude. Plus, as the US government begins its first shutdown in 17 years, several recent articles on the politics of the current crisis, and a look back at the last time it happened.
Iran Opens Its Fist Gary Sick He came to New York. He saw almost everyone. Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s new president, may not have conquered, but at least he seems to have persuaded John Kerry and Barack Obama that his proposals for negotiating an end to the US-Iran conflict deserve to be taken seriously.
Pynchon’s Mrs. Dalloway Edward Mendelson In tone, setting, character, and incident, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is a world away from Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, but both books have the same overall shape and both describe a lonely and reluctant quest for meanings that can never be obvious.
Libya: In Search of a Strongman Nicolas Pelham Rapacious brigades of armed volunteers and the creaking military inherited from the old regime are hurtling toward a new civil war, and the country’s ineffectual authorities seem unable to stop them. As multiple forces assert power in different parts of the country, many feel that only a strongman can hold Libya together. Who could it be?
The Splendid Monstress Cathleen Schine In his new novel, Wilton Barnhardt has found his people, wonderful, crackpot, exasperating people. It is a happy reminder of what an unlikely, endearing, and precious phenomenon the novel can still be.
					Losing Sight of Magritte Francine Prose In high school, I took a weekly drawing class at the Museum of Modern Art, and every Friday afternoon I’d stand—reverent, transfixed—in front of Magritte’s The Empire of Light. How enthralling it seemed to me, how magical and deep, how suggestive of a meaning that was obviously profound yet tantalizingly elusive.
The Stranglehold on Our Politics Elizabeth Drew SEPTEMBER 2013: The agony of the current Republican Party is that most of the far right isn’t concerned about the possible effects of their tactics on the national party—on its ability to win not just the next presidential election but also other offices down the line. How the House Really Works Michael Tomasky August 2012: When the House freshmen are vaulted into their second terms, will they start to think more like legislators and less like insurrectionists? Or will the bitter taste left by their first terms, when they managed to change so little, leave them even more devoted to the cause of crippling the Obama administration?   Will the Tea Get Cold? Sam Tanenhaus MARCH 2012: The impracticality of this war against government, which in fact offers no serious plan to scale government back, suggests that the conservative populism of our moment is rooted not in a coherent worldview so much as in a “mood” or atmosphere of generalized, undifferentiated protest.
The Republicans’ War Lars-Erik Nelson February 1999: In today’s Republican Party, moderate congressmen, even popular incumbents who would win a general election by overwhelming margins, are hostage to the party’s right wing.    What Happened to the Revolution? Garry Wills JUNE 1996: Revolutions are known to devour their own; but it seemed that this one barely had time to develop an appetite before it gulped down Newt Gingrich. What happened?
Art Mark Strand: Collages Francine Prose recommends this exhibition of “unique compositions with remarkable depth and character.”		Theater ‘Shakespeare’s Sister’ Dominique Nabokov says this show is a “sharp, witty, and insightful rumination on what it takes to be a woman.”		Film ‘Let the Fire Burn’ J. Hoberman: This walloping documentary recounts the tale of the political sect called MOVE and its destruction.