Eleanor Catton’s "Birnam Wood" is a leftist novel filled with radicals who fail to exemplify their own ideals.
Sharon Marcus
Sharon Marcus is Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding editor of Public Books. She is the author of Apartment Stories (University of California Press, 1999), Between Women (Princeton University Press, 2007), and The Drama of Celebrity (Princeton University Press, 2019), and is currently writing a book for the Princeton University Press “Skills for Scholars” series on how to give a good academic talk. 
“The Places Where Things Blur”: Namwali Serpell on “The Old Drift”
“One of the reasons it took so long to write is that—as I would joke with my friends—I found myself writing the great Zambian novel.”
B-Sides: Shirley Jackson’s Domestic Farce
Anyone who has spent at least three hours in sole charge of two or more children has stories to tell, but few faculties left with which to tell them. Luckily, we have a ...
Signs of Bombay
In December 2016, Public Books Editor in Chief Sharon Marcus spent a few days in Mumbai, participating in the Times of India Literary Festival and walking around the city. Mumbai, also known as ...
“Bright Lines”: a Discussion Guide
The First Lady of New York City recently gave local booklovers something to celebrate. Over the next year, Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s residence, will open its doors to several lucky residents for a ...
Making “Room”: An Interview with Novelist and Screenwriter Emma Donoghue
Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel Room is the story of a 5-year-old boy who lives in a single room with his mother and has never seen the outside world. Donoghue recently adapted her novel into a ...
Respect
“You don’t have character—you’re just handsome.” When Mathis lobbed this home truth at Don Draper a couple of weeks ago, he could have been talking about the show itself. Does Mad Men have ...
The People’s Climate March: Faces and Signs
This is the latest installment of Public Streets, a biweekly urban observations series curated by Ellis Avery. Last Sunday, September 21, New York City hosted the largest march against climate change ...
The Euphoria of Influence: Jeffrey Eugenides’s “The Marriage Plot”
In The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides asks what would happen if nineteenth-century literature married twentieth-century theory, and the result is many brilliant novels in one: a romance, a coming ...