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Bob looks back: Dylan has finally opened up and written a memoir. But 'Chronicles' is hardly a tell-all.
Poetic tales: Dylan memoir goes from Hibbing to hiding.
Between the covers: What makes Dylan's 'Chronicles' an engaging read.
Man & Myth: In telling his own story, Dylan adds to the mystique.
Roll Call: Who are novelists voting for?
At home with Sir Vidia: The Nobel laureate talks about his new reflective novel.
The Gripes of Roth: America's great writer novelizes the country's moral, political and spiritual decay. Extract from 'The Plot Against America'.
The Perpetual Stranger: Paul Theroux talks about writing and traveling, and the liberation that both provide.
'Greene' by Paul Theroux, 'The Johore Murders' by Paul Theroux
The Silent Scourge: We try our best to avoid it, but boredom has its benefits.
Her Best Day: Rickie Lee Jones is singing (and writing) again, about politics, love, and her new life in southern California.
The Height Gap: Why Europeans are getting taller and taller, and Americans aren�t.
Wraiths and Race: What with the dark skin, broad faces and dreadlocks, it's a wonder Tolkien didn't give his baddies a natural sense of rhythm.
Johnny of the Cross: His spirit was scarred, busted, threadbare, but fearless, peaceable, witty and wise.
Voice of the Downtrodden: Johnny Cash's five-decade career defined and refined American music.
Johnny Cash Won't Back Down: He's done battle with sin, pills and booze, and stood his ground.
Tribute to June Carter Cash: The den mother of country music.
A Vivid, Iconic Figure: Camus has overtaken Sartre to become the popular hero of existentialism.
The Death of Horatio Alger: Between 1973 and 2000 the average real income of the bottom 90 per cent of American taxpayers actually fell by 7 per cent.
McLanguage Meets the Dictionary: If lexicographers allowed individuals or pressure groups to dictate definitions, then our language would be reduced to mere McWords.
Texas for Cretins : Don't mock Texans if you know nothing about them. DBC Pierre's Booker winner is shallow and safe.
Hatchet Jobs: Dale Peck bemoans his life as a critic in a world of Stepford novels.
Demolition Man: Dale Peck is the scourge of literary America, laying into everyone from Julian Barnes to Don DeLillo.
Dirty Story: Nerve talks to Martin Amis about his own relationship to pornography, the pervasiveness of the facial cum shot, and the Great Satan of porn.
Tall Tales on the High Seas: Naval novelists C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian's public personas were as fictional as their characters.
Gore Vidal Uncensored: The take-no-prisoners social critic skewers Bush, Ashcroft and the whole damn lot of us for letting despots rule.
A Life Stranger Than Fiction: First Amy Tan's grandmother committed suicide, then her mother tried to murder her.
Commence Skimming: The mass encroachment of subheads on the written word.
The Onion A.V. Club's Cheap Toy Roundup: Annual gift guide for grownups who are either trying to work within a budget or just buying presents for particularly crappy kids.
The Onion A.V. Club's Least Essential Albums: As always, 'Least Essential' refers not to the worst music (not that this is the cream of the crop), but to the recordings with the flimsiest reasons to exist.
The Onion A.V. Club's Best Albums of 2003: The White Stripes, OutKast, Fountains Of Wayne, and more landed on multiple lists, but a whopping 45 different albums made someone's Top 10.
The Skeptical Believer: Lester Bangs forged a career of passionate excess, but his skepticism made him great.
Airpower�s Century: Powered flight, born exactly 100 years ago, changed how we wage war.
The Real Ellen Glasgow: An unlikely rebel of the privileged South.
Damaged Beast of the Antipodes: Peter Carey's true story of a hoax, 'My Life as a Fake', is fast, fantastic and flawed, says Blake Morrison.
Vengeful Majorities: In many poor countries, markets concentrate wealth in the hands of prosperous ethnic minorities.
Forget the Dalai Lama: Dylan has always had a way with words, says Christopher Ricks in his latest book on the folk-rock bard.
A Day to Remember: A reporter recalls the scene of JFK's assassination.
The Rise Of India: Growth is only just starting, but the country's brainpower is already reshaping Corporate America.
Science as Democratizer: Does the pursuit of pure science make sense in a world of scarcity and strife?
We're All Gonna Die!: But it won't be from germ warfare, runaway nanobots, or shifting magnetic poles.
Unreason's Seductive Charms: Sometimes, in fact, it is reason itself that generates monstrous outcomes.
Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez is No Mild Literary Memoirist: 'Living to Tell the Tale' must be counted among the masterworks of the world's greatest living novelist.
A Miserable Failure: Will Bush be re-elected? Only if voters wittingly ignore his long list of failures while in office.
The Original Italian Stallion: Despite doubts about his sexuality, Rudolph Valentino reigned supreme as the greatest Latin lover.
The View from Downstairs: The Windsors' treatment of their domestic staff is so appalling that they have only themselves to blame for the latest avalanche of revelations and tittle-tattle.
Writing a Tribute to Your Favorite Record: A heightened interest in classic albums can no longer be simply written off as the province of the geeky fact fiend.
Coming Up Roses: One of the late Elliott Smith's last interviews.
New York in Reverse: Elliott Smith's idea of heaven was modest, like everything else about the songwriter.
Pamela Anderson, Woman of Letters: After making her name as the larger-than-life Baywatch babe, the sexpot is taking charge of her destiny and becoming a novelist.
Killers in White Gowns: In a new book on the Doctors' Plot, two authors argue that It was more than just another attack on Jews.
A Hitch in the Guide to Adams: In his official biography of Douglas Adams, 'Wish You Were Here', Nick Webb fails to fathom his subject's marvellous mind.
The Limited Circle is Pure: Zadie Smith thinks Franz Kafka was too good for the novel or the novel was not quite good enough for him.
'How Did I Get Here?': Booker prize winner DBC Pierre didn't know where he was from or what he was doing.
How I Learned About Africa in Texas: An early essay by Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. NYT's J. M. Coetzee Page
Lost in London: A tantalising glimpse into the inner world of J.M. Coetzee.
The Novelist and the Animals: J.M. Coetzee's unsettling literature of animal rights.
The Making of a Jazz Classic: Excerpt from 'A Love Supreme' by Ashley Khan.
We are All Africans: Do the authors of the Out of Africa hypothesis have a definitive reason to celebrate?
The Iran Conspiracy: In many ways America's obsession with terrorism since September 11 is an echo of its obsession with communism fifty years ago.
Between Rock and a Hard Place: The collaboration between the late Warren Zevon and the poet Paul Muldoon.
Great Songs of the Past 1,000 Years: St Godric wrote a nice little toe-tapper some time around 1050... Richard Thompson on a millennium of pop.
Hello, I'm Johnny Cash: Before his death, Sylvie Simmons spent five extraordinary days with him at his home near Nashville.
In a Funk Over the No-Nobel Prize: Overlooked MRI pioneer lobbies against decision.
Oh Boy!: Germaine Greer's examination of young men, 'The Boy', isn't as iconoclastic as it's made out to be.
Writing from the Margins: By daring to mention the name of a Trinidadian street in print, V.S. Naipaul started a movement of writers from former British colonies.
The Bunny in Autumn: As Playboy turns 50, Hef's baby has a few gray hairs.
That's All, Folks!: Filmmaker John Boorman on a blockbuster-obsessed industry that's facing meltdown.
Poetic Deceit: In his new novel 'My Life as a Fake', Peter Carey evokes a scandal involving a phantom writer.
Leader of the Pack: lan Hollinghurst analyses 'Yellow Dog', Martin Amis's latest comic tour de force.
Socrates of the Streets: Walter Mosley's new book, a critique of the US war on terror, finds little favour among America's current political establishment.
Livewire Rock Critic: Lester Bangs was the best, or the most rewardingly startling, the best at what he did.
The End of Innocence: Henry James's novel 'The Bostonians' was poorly received but AS Byatt admires its witty depiction of spiritualist and utopian movements in post-civil war America.
Can Buy Me Love: What do a highbrow French thinker and a commercial African-American novelist have in common?
The Thrilling Adventures of Harvey Pekar: In which he mopes, sulks, and complains a lot.
Losing His Religion: Apostate Ibn Warraq campaigns for the right not to be a Muslim.
Thanks for the Mammaries: Feminists want women to control their bodies -- except their breasts.
Ranting Against Cant: Harold Bloom, a staunch defender of the Western literary tradition, returns to Shakespeare, 'the true multicultural author'.
Did Bob Dylan Lift Lines From Dr. Saga?: 'Don't think twice, it's all right' is the view of this Japanese writer.
The White Man Unburdened: Bush knew that a big victory in an easy war would work for the good white American male, says Norman Mailer.
Hillary's History: Hillary Clinton's new memoir is more than 100,000 pages long.
Strom's Skeleton: The late segregationist's black daughter.
Che Trippers: The sex appeal of dubious, semi-fraudulent characters like Che and Castro goes beyond images.
The Hund of the Basques: Grim descriptions of doggy-style sex spoil Paul Theroux's collection of short stories, 'The Stranger at the Palazzo d'Oro'.
The First Shopaholic: Count D'Orsay, the last of the dandies, inhabited stately pleasure domes in Victorian England.
Pleasing Bill: Dossier detailing Monica Lewinsky's special Presidential service. Monica Gives More
The Year of No Money: Paul Auster recalls how he came to translate a conversation between the sculptor Alberto Giacometti and the critic David Sylvester in 1972.
Poor little Rich Boy: John Updike on how Scott Fitzgerald's fascination with wealth informed his work and ruined his life.
Piano-Player in a Brothel: Malcolm Muggeridge, born 100 years ago, was very much a man of the 20th-century world but rebelled against it.
The Genome Changes Everything: A talk with Matt Ridley, chairman of the International Centre for Life.
Speaking for the Dead: Ariel Dorfman escaped Pinochet's 1973 coup and went into exile, writing novels and plays examining the state terror that wracked South America.
Streaming Consciousness: Two extracts from Virgina Woolf's 1909 notebook, which were discovered in a drawer in Birmingham last year.
What Helen Keller Saw: The making of a writer who saw without sight and heard what she did not hear.
You've Got Spam: The inundation of unsolicited e-mail advertising and what we ought to do about it.
Who Are We?: We've been obsessed with human nature ever since we knew we had one.
Sex, Lies and EastEnders: The antics that keep 'EastEnders' viewers coming back for more are the same ones that animal behaviour experts find among our evolutionary cousins.
Veiled Confessions: What Hillary Clinton meant to say in a recent TV interview and her book.
Glam Girl: A quick guide for those too smart to wade through 'Living History' to mine the good stuff.
Getting More From Google: Tips and tricks to help you find exactly what you want from the leading search engine.
The Chimp Genome: According to the latest estimates, we share 98.8 per cent of our DNA with the chimpanzees.
Bob Hope, Postmodern Pioneer: Hope's 50 films between 1938 and 1972 contain some of the boldest strokes of postmodern sleight of hand ever seen on the screen.
'My Father is a Book': Janna Malamud Smith recounts life with her writer-father Bernard Malamud.
The Soul of Wit: The ability to find joy in life is our chief earthly good.
Too Smart To Be So Dumb: The moral tyranny of IQ.
The Other Side of Nina Simone: Seeing the late jazz diva play live was a thrilling but dangerous experience.
Trampled Underfoot: Take away Led Zeppelin's mystique and what are you left with?
The Age of Innocence: Archive recordings are all the rage, as a host of musical styles fills the record shops.
Better Babies?: Why genetic enhancement is too unlikely to worry about.
Grace Under Pressure: A spirited polemic that alerts readers to the forgotten history of anti-Catholic biases in America.
The Conscience of His Age: In his centenary year, George Orwell's work has lost none of its force and fire.
The Slave History You Don't Know: A scholar's startling study of the Southwest wins unprecedented acclaim.
America Goes Backward: The anti-Americanism on the rise throughout the world is a resentment of double standards and double talk.
Mountain High: The amazing feats involved in the conquest of Everest 50 years ago.
Croonin' with a Conscience: Iwan Fals sings a timeless message of justice for all.
The Sum of Two Evils: Saddam's nastiest biological weapons may have been his sons Uday and Qusay.
Act of Rebellion: Classical music allows consumers to escape from high prices, celebrity culture, and the worst abuses of corporate art dissemination.
The Boy and The Bubble: Whether it was luck or his canny sense of the larger world being ready for something real, Ry Cooder will now always be remembered as the man behind the breakout success of Buena Vista Social Club.
Magpie Mystic of the South Pacific: Paul Gauguin died 100 years ago next week. But his lush visions of exotic escapism seem more resonant than ever.
The Road to 1984: George Orwell's final novel was seen as an anticommunist tract and many have claimed its grim vision of state control proved prophetic.
Orwell's Observer Years: George Orwell's books defined his times, and his journalism for The Observer defined the spirit of the newspaper.
Angry Old Woman: Why novelist Margaret Drabble loathes the US of A.
Dead Beat: Beat Generation poet Ted Joans, who has died in Canada aged 74, was inspired by the African-American story-telling tradition.
Noel Redding R.I.P.: The bassist with The Jimi Hendrix Experience was 'a lovely guy', according to his former manager.
Operation Smiley: Jane Smiley's struggle to write a great American novel.
Cultural Globalization Is Not Americanization: We increasingly define ourselves rather than let others define us.
In Defence of High Art: Extend a little tenderness toward this increasingly precarious province.
Eddie Unabridged: Pearl Jam singer speaks out about Eminem, Kurt and George W.
Sex, Sars and Censorship: Catching one bug and avoiding the other at the 16th Singapore International Festival.
Hitler's Forgotten Library: The surviving remnants of Adolf Hitler's personal library reveal a deep but erratic interest in religion and theology.
The Puzzle of Leni Riefenstahl: Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler�s filmmaker, must have hoped that her 100th birthday this past August would bring that final rehabilitation of reputation.
A World on the Edge: The murder of a relative is horrible for anyone, anywhere.
Not Licenced to Kill But...: Daphne Park does not look like James Bond, but she was the true face of British Intelligence for 30 years.
Shortlist Iraq: Guide to books on the second Gulf War and the Middle East.
Holy Writ: Do recent writers on Islam need to be more stringent in their criticism?
Evelyn Waugh Faces Life and Vice Versa: Life magazine decided in January of 1946 to favour the British novelist with its unwelcome attention.
Blood on the Tracks: Writing for a Dublin evening class about her alcoholic mother was painful for Nuala O'Faolain
The Lost Prophet of Architecture: The possible answer to one of the supreme challenges of human existence: How do we create beauty?
When Stand-Up Grew Up: The history of stand-up comedy divides neatly into two eras: B.M.S. and A.M.S.
Echoes from Chechen Guerrillas: Leo Tolstoy's 'Hadji Murat' has uncanny resonances with current affairs.
Happy hookers of Eastern Europe: The truth behind the myth of sex-slave trafficking.
Assault on History: Bombs are falling, incinerating and humiliating an ancient civilisation, says Arundhati Roy.
Al's Swell: Al Jazeera is just as fair as CNN, if not fairer.
The Real Lisa Marie Presley Speaks Out: Daughter of Elvis, ex-wife of Michael Jackson -- you better believe she has a story to tell.
An Inventory of Idiocy: Since the foolish outnumber the wise, the dominion of the dumb is assured.
I, Clone: The Three Laws of Cloning will protect clones and advance science.
Embracing the 'Dark Side': Roger Waters, guitarist Dave Gilmour and engineer Alan Parsons talk about the making of a classic album.
Cents and Sensibility: The surprising truth about sales of classic novels.
Iraq: A Letter of Resignation: The text of career diplomat John Brady Kiesling's letter of resignation to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Only in America: Article based on Norman Mailer's Commonwealth Club speech in San Francisco on February 20, 2003.
The Jewel of Africa: Robert Mugabe is now widely execrated, and rightly, but blame for him began late.
From Hero to Zero: The trials and tribulations of Julian Maclaren-Ross as told in Paul Willetts's biography of the Soho legend.
Tidewater Traumas: Tragedy has given William Styron almost all his subject matter.
The Falling Leaves: Why are British books so inferior to their American counterparts?
Desert Island Scripts: Following the footprints of a 12th-century Muslim Robinson Crusoe.
More Means Better: A sympathetic portrait of a religious reformer and playwright.
Polanski The Predator: Recently unsealed grand jury minutes detail 1977 sex assault.
Who Shot the President?: A possible explanation for conspiracy theories.
Cleopatra: From History to Myth: Dissecting an iconic figure whose legend is fed by the writings of Plutarch, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and the many film versions of her story.
Agog over Google: The more you know it, the more your use it. And love it.
TV anchors Fighting Own Hard Battles: U.S. networks mix incoherence with triteness.
Tales of the Tyrant: What does Saddam Hussein see in himself that no one else in the world seems to see?
It's Not Easy Being Mean: The strange life of Saddam Hussein and why his downfall is inevitable.
Ruthless Gambler Rolls Final Dice: Andrew Cockburn, the author of a definitive study of Saddam Hussein, explains his rise from poor boy to dictator.
Knowing Thyself: A historian explains how the stigma of 'solitary sex' rose ... and fell.
Going It Alone: Masturbation is the supremely self-sufficient act, done in private, needing no resources beyond what is readily available.
Full Nelson: Andrew Motion on the trials and triumphs of England's first hero.
All the Fun of the Fair: Blonde hair is a magnet for sex and money.
The Curious Career of Aldous Huxley: Despite the inevitable outbursts of bookishness, Huxley�s essays are easy to read and always informative.
And Here's to You, Mrs Robinson: The older woman, immortalised by Anne Bancroft in 'The Graduate', is every young man's sexual fantasy, says Paul Theroux.
The Giant of Soviet Brinkmanship: A new Nikita Khrushchev biography proves to be a masterpiece of scholarship, investigation and narrative.
When Cuba Tried to Persuade Saddam: In the fall of 1990 a high-level Cuban diplomatic delegation was sent by Fidel Castro to Baghdad to persuade Saddam Hussein to withdraw from Kuwait.
The Non-Integrating Gap: Why military engagement with Saddam Hussein�s regime in Baghdad is not only necessary and inevitable, but good.
America's Biggest Readers: An obsessively omnivorous polymath, a speed-reading insomniac, an incomparably prolific reviewer and just some regular folks
Supplicant: 'My mother gave me up before either of us knew the value of a mother. After her death, I no longer confuse longing with love.'
Stalin's Legacy: Not only are there Stalinists in power today; there are apologists for them.
A Fatal Fast: Hailed as a mystic, decried as a fraud, did Sarah Jacob die of an eating disorder?
American Dreams: He may be known as one of New York's coolest chroniclers, but Paul Auster grew up in suburban New Jersey and worked on an oil tanker before achieving literary success.
Marriage � la mode: Manju Kapur's 'A Married Woman' is a vivid and tender story of sexual awakening in 1970s Delhi.
Q&A Session with Richard Dawkins: 'Do you have a particular affinity with chimpanzees? '
The Wily American: A look at the new Graham Greene movie shows how anti-Americanism has changed over the years.
Reviewing Without Reading: The many ways of assessing a book without digesting every page.
Caring for Your Introvert: The habits and needs of a little-understood group.
The Lying Judge: Justice William Douglas, the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, was a flagrant liar, a compulsive womanizer, a heavy drinker, and a terrible husband to each of his four wives.
Po Excuse for a Guru: The runaway commercial success of Po Bronson's latest book suggests that he is saying exactly what many people want to hear.
Out of Africa: Chinua Achebe, father of modern African literature, has long argued that Joseph Conrad was a racist.
Towers of Strength No More: First Ted Perry, now Tower Records -- is the independent spirit really dead?
Favorite Song: Nick Hornby on Ryan Adams's 'Oh My Sweet Carolina'.
Eggers vs. The Establishment: This month marks the tenth issue of Dave Eggers's McSweeney's, the literary magazine that has become required reading.
Wonderful world of Wal-Mart: To describe Wal-Mart as a dominating force in Bentonville understates by a widish margin the influence it has.
Last Gasp for the American Dream: J.G. Ballard on Mike Davis's vivid indictment of the social and environmental chaos enveloping urban America.
Secrets and Lives: A.S. Byatt enjoys Janet Malcolm's journey through the work and times of a notoriously private playwright.
Strong-willed Martha: The woman who loved Freud but hated his 'porn'.
Tearing Down the Veil: In 'The Souls of Black Folk', W.E.B. Du Bois combined history, philosophy and music in an attempt to combat racism.
Is Carol Moseley-Braun a Crook?: Her one-term Senate tenure was plagued by scandals, highlighted by a fracas over whether she misspent $249,000 in campaign donations.
Best Unsigned Artist?: Eleni Mandell, a great singer-songwriter who can't get a record deal.
Roll Call: Who's for war, who's against it, and why.
Wynton's Blues: After a series of sour notes, Wynton Marsalis has been drawing increasing fire from critics and fellow musicians alike for his narrow neotraditionalism.
The Real George Bush: David Frum, a former presidential speechwriter and the author of 'The Right Man', gives an inside look at the character of George W. Bush.
The Road Better Not Taken: A war against Iraq could be the most catastrophic blunder in U.S. history.
A Certain Kind of Greatness: David Cannadine, the author of 'In Churchill's Shadow', talks about Britain's reaction to its own decline.
Pop's Lost Genius: Phil Spector produced some of the greatest pop hits of all time but he's also a tyrannical, tortured soul.
A Twist of Fate: Two unknown scientists solved the secret of life in a few weeks of frenzied inspiration in 1953. Here's how they did it.
Ladies' Night Out at the Movies: Femme films are chic around Oscar time. But what can women hope for the rest of the year?
The NBA's Center of Attention: Yao Ming is the future of the Houston Rockets, the savior of the NBA, and American business's most promising link to China.
Why the Space Shuttle Must Be Stopped: It's costly, outmoded, impractical and, as we've learned again, deadly.
Tuvalu Toodle-oo: The serene South Pacific archipelago of Tuvalu wants the world to know it will soon be the first nation to sink beneath the rising waters of global warming.
The Temptation of War: A new memoir by Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, warns that Presidents will do anything to avoid losing wars.
Natasha Radojcic-Kane's 'Homecoming': Writing the madness of war.
Noir Voyager: Alan Furst�s glamorous, doomed world.
'Like Jane Austen with Sex': Mary Wesley was famous both for the late start of her literary career and for the enthusiastic sexuality of her characters.
More Than Drawing-Room Romps: A tribute to Mary Wesley, mistress of the dark side of upper-class mores.
The One That Got Away: Whatever happened to 'Best of Young British Novelists' listee Ursula Bentley?
Hogging the Landscape: Annie Proulx's latest story, 'That Old Ace in the Hole', is an assemblage of rural yarns and small-town anecdotes.
Wild in the Country: Annie Proulx's rich imagination has made her books popular the world over -- and yet she didn't finish her first novel until the age of 56.
The Militant Magician: Jos� Saramago, a Nobel prizewinner, now 80, and a lifelong communist, was formed by his experience of Portugal's rural poverty and the struggle against Salazar's dictatorship.
Genre Peace: The Jazz Stasi sets its sights on Cassandra Wilson.
The Bright Spots in Jazz's Lousy 2002: It's been a bad year for jazz sales, even by jazz standards.
D.W. Griffith in Black and White: Was the 'Birth of a Nation' director really a racist?
Rock and Roll Report Card: Music critic Robert Christgau turned the capsule review into an art form.
He Fought the Law (and the Law Won): It was great to have Joe Strummer back, even if he sold 'London Calling' to Jaguar. Now he's gone, reminding us that rock doesn't matter anymore.
Anger on the Left: Beyond the hyperbole and wrangle that helped create their radical myth, the Clash brandished a hearty reputation as a rock & roll band that had to be seen to be believed.
Rebel Yell: Spiritually, if not chronologically (it came out in late December of 1979), but 'London Calling' was the first record of the 1980s.
Hey Gals, It's Tool Time!: From the Fukuoku 9000 to a Hello Kitty vibrator, gals test-drive the newest bedroom playthings and report the results.
Personal Best: Writers recommend their favourite reading of 2002.
Why Everyone Thinks Today's Music Stinks: The music-media industry works by the creation of fads and lifestyles for teenagers. Romantic Love, Race. Death. Violence. Sex...
A Year to Forget: Enron, WorldCom, United; the war between Hollywood and Silicon Valley; a droopy stock market; and more, more, more spam.
The Return of the Repressed: What happened to Masud Khan? Some answers may lie in his personal papers.
Imre Kert�sz's Nobel Lecture: 'Thus, in thinking about Auschwitz, I reflect, paradoxically, not on the past but the future...'
Green Cuisine: In 'Vegetarianism: A History', British author Colin Spencer seems hellbent on making Hutchison's case that 'vegetarianism is... apt to fill a man with wind and self-righteousness'.
Saddam As Author: He's no Sebastian Junger, but he sure can fictionalize!
Pulpy Prose: Extracts from the shortlist for the Literary Review Bad Sex Prize 2002.
Advertisement for Himself: Is Jonathan Franzen aware of how grating his pleaful moans and hopeful sighs have become?
The God of New Things: Why Hinduism is as much a political invention as an ancient tradition.
The Canting Crew: When Eric Partridge's pioneering Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English first appeared in 1937, the subject was seen as subversive and illicit.
Not Just for Whey-faced Loners: The latest edition of David Thomson's 'Dictionary of Film' has a curious tone of resignation.
A Boy's Own Story: Steeped in imperialism, G.A. Henty's adventure tales reflected Victorian values and an heroic Englishness.
A Private History: Orhan Pamuk explains why he put his family's story into an historical novel.
Return to Toad Hall: Andrew Motion thought he knew 'The Wind in the Willows' from his childhood, but did he really?
The Intellectual Origins Of America-Bashing: What started this whole "down with Yanks" thing.
Bumper Mentality: Unlike any other vehicle before it, the SUV is the car of choice for the most self-centered Americans.
The Inner Einstein: Nearly 50 years after his death Albert Einstein remains not just scientifically relevant but a multipurpose icon as well.
Knockin' on the Crazy Diamond's Door: In this extract from his candid new book, Tim Willis tracks Syd Barrett down and pieces together the story of rock's lost icon.
Martel on Borrowing, Plagiarism and Creativity: The Booker winner responds to readers' questions on matters ranging from the row over 'Life of Pi' and the point of literary prizes to his favorite animals.
A Life Built on Lies?: As Georges Simenon's centenary approaches, new clues to the life of the Belgian thriller-writer are being unravelled.
Larks in the Dorm: Philip Larkin's first ambition was to be a novelist. He wrote two boarding school novellas and several poems under the pseudonym Brunette Coleman.
White Blight: According to Michael Moore stupid white men are the source of the world's ills.
Science's Soul Threat: A decade ago Francis Fukuyama asserted that we had reached the end of history. Now he has looked into the future and doesn't like what he sees.
The Day Malcolm X Died: An edited extract from Maya Angelou's 'A Song Flung Up To Heaven'.
Epiphany Under the Sun: Almost 40 years ago, Paul Theroux was an idealistic young teacher in Malawi. This exclusive extract from his new book has him returning to find his former school in ruins.
The Force Within: Alec Guinness was world-famous but a mystery to everyone who claimed to know him.
The Great Unknown Writer: A new Brian Moore biography chronicles the Irish novelist's life with the minimum of psychological analysis.
Divided Selves: The partition of India cut Salman Rushdie's family in half. In this exclusive extract from his new essay collection, he remembers people and events that helped form many of his ideas.
The Secret Heroism of JFK: In the 1960s he was sometimes called 'gallant', but no one then had any idea just how much gallantry it took to be John F. Kennedy.
Bad Medicine: Homeopathy is based on a 300-year-old mistake and magnetic therapy is simply fraudulent... Some popular medical myths debunked.
From Eternity to Here: How Nick Drake became a songwriter for our times.
A Troubled Cure for a Troubled Mind: Veteran Dutch documentarian Jeroen Berkven's featurette 'A Skin Too Few' beautifully evokes the enduring appeal of English singer-songwriter Nick Drake.
Only Disconnect: An unpublished telephone (non-)interview with V.S. Naipaul.
The End of Make-Believe: V.S. Naipaul's grim (1999) pronouncements on the future of fiction.
Poison-Pen Pals: Writers not only seem unsuited for friendship in general but are even more lamentably ill-equipped when it comes to dealings with fellow writers.
Home, to the Snakes and the Sensitive Plants: An appreciation of the work of Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul.
Comparative Advantage: How economist Paul Krugman became the most important political columnist in America.
A Kiplingesque View of India: Mark Tully's 'India in Slow Motion' is not so much about contemporary India in the age of globalisation as it is about the foreign journalist sinking into expatriate complacencies.
John Rawls Dead at 81: He is considered by many to be the most important political philosopher of the second half of the 20th century.
The 9/11 Movie Hollywood Won't Let You See: '11'09"01' is sometimes arty, sometimes preachy and sometimes brilliant. In Bush's America, this omnibus film is also commercially untouchable.
The Hypocrisy of Record Executives: Horrors, the peasants are acting like emperors!
Excerpts from 'Most Wanted: Profiles of Terror': A book that offers portraits of such figures of the politics of hate as Osama bin Laden, Hafiz Saeed, V. Prabhakaran, Paresh Barua, Syed Salahuddin and Maulana Masood Azhar.
Conquerors Turned into Curiosities: Hari Kunzru's 'The Impressionist' is being accused by many reviewers of a certain emptiness, an absence of heart...
Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame: Paranoia, hubris, and hatred -- the unraveling of the greatest chess player ever.
Dumber and Dumber: We go to concerts to hear singers who lip-sync, watch movies with actors who can't act and 'reality' TV shows that have nothing to do with reality...
Keeping Up With 'The Simpsons': Now, who would have thought a cartoon show could be so intelligent and enduring?
We Need James Bond in Real Life: Clearly, it's time to do what we always do when psychopaths are threatening the civilized world -- call in 007.
The Question of Influences: Aleksandar Hemon on the writers and things that've swayed him.
The Beerbohm Cult: Max Beerbohm was the world's greatest minor writer, with the full oxymoronic quality behind that epithet entirely intended.
Using Eminem, Badly, for Political Gain: Something about Eminem tends to make fools out of people. The ironically challenged keep taking his bait.
Old But Not Irrelevant: A salute to Kurt Vonnegut at 80.
Civilization and V. S. Naipaul: How cheering it is that the year that saw that terrible assault on civilization also saw the presentation of a Nobel Prize in Literature to someone whose entire body of work might justifiably be described as a defense of civilization.
At War With Witchcraft: 'In the Devil's Snare' is not merely a compelling study of Salem witchery but a standard-bearer for American history.
The Three Ages of Jacques Derrida: An interview with the father of Deconstructionism.
The Spinster and the Prophet: In the 1920s, judges ridiculed a Canadian woman who said H.G. Wells plagiarized her book, but a modern scholar finds her case convincing.
The all-American Pervert: Even as he sank into a fatal sexual morass, Bob Crane remained a blandly wholesome nice guy.
For Ira Einhorn, a Fate Worse Than Death: The '60s-era icon claimed shadowy intelligence agents were behind the 1977 murder of his girlfriend, Holly Maddux. The jury disagreed.
Unity is Health: The babies of the poor are more likely to die in the country whose rich are wealthier.
A Towering Challenge: A supergroup of architectural talent is gathering to determine what should replace the World Trade Center
Whose Music Is It Anyway?: Lawsuits over who owns music - and even silence - reveal the music biz at its most powerful. But using other people's tunes need not be theft...
Stephen Ambrose, Copycat: The latest work of a bestselling historian isn't all his.
Signs of the Times: Umberto Eco was working in TV and was active in left-wing politics when his medieval thriller 'The Name of the Rose' became an international bestseller.
Hip Gnosis: Frank Kermode admires the staying power of 71-year-old critic Harold Bloom, who combines academic rebellion with an encyclopedic literary knowledge.
An Invitation to Slow Down: After seven years' work, the new Penguin translation of Proust's vast, great novel is ready.
For Love... and Money: The heartbreaking tale of Dave Eggers' mega success.
Evolution and Literary Criticism: In many ways, Virgil seems more attuned to humanity's animal nature than are modern readers.
Sunnyside Down: A new book gives waitresses a chance to say what they really think of their work -- and their customers.
Bright Fright: 'The Ring', a clammy, creepy shocker, brings the evil -- and the surrealist influence -- back to horror flicks.
Ignoring the Poor: Poverty is on the rise in the US, but the media is consumed with sniper attacks and rumors of war.
Which Planet Do They Live On?: Hawks in the Bush administration may be making deadly miscalculations on Iraq, says Gen. Anthony Zinni, Bush's Middle East envoy.
No More Heroes: Rock musicians used to be in the vanguard of political protest. Whatever happened to those days?
Too Many Cooks, Too Many Books: Bookshops make at least one third of their annual profits during the pre-Christmas period, but should more be done to help sales year-round?
An Accidental World: Why does this universe exist, among an infinity of possibilities, including nothing at all?
Political Animals: A new book asks all the right questions about animal rights, even if it doesn't canvass all the possible answers.
The Trenchant Traveller: Paul Theroux pulls no punches. He is as acerbic and forthright on the plight of Africa as he is about the breakdown of the relationship with his literary hero.
Don't Blame the West: Before the Bali bombing incident, liberal Australia felt the US had brought Sept. 11 upon itself. But that argument has been smashed.
Rebel, Rebel: Larry McMurty on the outlaw myth and 'Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War' by T.J. Stiles.
Yann Martel on Writing 'Life of Pi': 'I was in India. It was my second time. Another stint to shake me and dazzle me....'
The Scandal That Wasn't: To read the headlines, you might think that the Yann Martel scandal is the latest example of a good author who done wrong.
The Trial of Henry K.: Was Kissinger a war criminal? A new movie can't prove the case.
The Trials of Henry Kissinger: Should Kissinger be held legally accountable for what his policies led to in Cambodia, in Chile, and in East Timor?
Family Matters: From the author of 'A Fine Balance', a Dickensian story of a Bombay family whose members battle society to gain true love and worldly success.
All People Are Crazy: P. J. O'Rourke on the Middle East, the universality of the absurd, and his beef with Mark Twain.
The Roaring Nineties: Economist Joseph Sitglitz was deeply involved in many of the economic-policy debates of the past ten years. What did this experience tell him?
Speak Up for Your Reads!: B. R. Myers, the author of 'A Reader's Manifesto', argues that the time has come for readers to stand up to the literary establishment.
The Highwayman: Perhaps the best testament to the longevity and breadth of Willie Nelson's career is the number of greatest-hits albums he has released.
A Wild Stork Chase: If you want to see Africa the way Livingstone did, Zambia is the place.
Citizen Annenberg: Walter Annenberg, 1908-2002. So long, you rotten bastard.
A Beacon of Sanity: In an age of religious fanatics, patriotic zealots and self-righteous leftists, Salman Rushdie champions free thinking and fun.
A New York State of Mind: Salman Rushdie talks about why he was banished by Bush I, the light and dark sides of Islam, and his new life in Manhattan.
J'accuse: A century after Emile Zola's death, Robin Buss celebrates a writer once dismissed in England as 'the apostle of the gutter'.
The Forger's Shadow: How literature's conmen got posthumously rehabilitated.
The President's Real Goal in Iraq: This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman.
The Renaissance Starts Here?: Having turned itself into an economic power, Singapore has a new goal: To become Asia's cultural hub.
Dear Mr Bush... :By trying to protect themselves, the Americans have made everyone more vulnerable and the whole world a more precarious and less pleasant place to live, says veteran Italian war correspondent Tiziano Terzani.
Graham Greene's Vietnam: Vietnam today is full of astonishing contrasts to the opium-soaked, decadent world of Greene's novel.
The Flowering of The Hippies: Hippies thought they saw on Haight Street that everyone's eyes were filled with loving joy and giving.
Cinema Loves Rain: In painting, rain is very hard to do. In cinema, rain is another matter.
On Mozart: An interview with Alfred Brendel.
Think You Have a Book in You? Think Again: Why should so many people think they can write a book, especially at a time when so many people who actually do write books turn out not really to have a book in them?
Taking on America: In the aftermath of 11 September the key states of the European Union (EU) took the path of 'unconditional compromises', giving ground to US pressure.
Forgetting the Evils of Empire: A rising clamor of anti-American sentiment can be heard among the European intelligentsia.
What's Floods Got to Do With It? The biblical-scale floods across Europe have receded. But the ensuing doom-mongering about global warming is unlikely to abate so quickly.
Confused Commemorations: One year on from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, America struggled to commemorate those horrific events in a fitting and meaningful manner.
A Mature Response to Ageing: Life expectancy in industrialized countries has been extending by two-and-a-half years each decade for the past 150 years. A cause for celebration? You'd think so.
Blair's Dodgy Dossier: The evidence might be weak, but so is the opposition to Britain and America's war. Despite the dodgy dossier, war with Iraq may already be a done deal.
A Platform for Closed Minds: Salman Rushdie argues that Michel Houellebecq's Islamic opponents have miscalculated badly.
Automated News: The new Google News site, news untouched by human hands.
Gun Crazy: A trigger-happy AG takes out the courts and Constitution.
'Barbershop' Questions Rosa Parks' Role: Does Rosa Parks get too much credit for the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott?
Having Difficulty With Difficulty: A novel's difficulty is related to its quality as literature.
The Women Come and Go: T. S. Eliot's sex life. Do we really want to go there? It is a sad and desolate place.
Hip-Hop's Murky Whodunit: Nick Broomfield's dishonest film 'Biggie and Tupac' solves nothing about the rap world's most notorious murders.
Been There, Done Iraq: Recently discovered 'Star Trek' scripts reveal Saddam-busting strategies.
Hitler's Best Friend: The debate over Albert Speer's responsibility for Nazi war crimes rages on in a new biography of the Third Reich's master architect and planner.
The Arrogance of the Bush Doctrine: The president's new foreign policy will only anger other countries, and provoke them to take their own 'preemptive action'.
The Better Angels: Why Americans are still fighting over who was right and who was wrong in the Civil War.
West Meets East (Again): With Asian music and culture on display in concert halls across North America, some critics are grumbling about the dangers of cultural appropriation.
The Angolan Tragedy: The worst place in the world you might have the misfortune to be born -- this is what most people in Angola refer to as 'the situation', or the situac�o.
Rings of Smoke: If there is an underworld where the darkest nightmares of the twentieth century dwell, W.G. Sebald could be its Charon.
The Man Who Made Bach Cool: The classical-music world seems to run on birthday celebrations but few are more deserving of recognition than that of Glenn Gould, who would have turned 70 on Sept. 25.
Drunken Racist Or Great Writer?: Prophet; pornographer; fascist; racist; trouble-maker; drunk; nihilist; moralist; self-publicist; misogynist; martyr to freedom of speech; one of the greatest living writers. Which is the real Michel Houellebecq?
'Milosevic in Prison': Slobodan Milosevic was held in Belgrade Central Prison for 89 days before being extradited to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Dragisa Blanusa, the prison governor kept this intiguing diary on the fallen Serbian leader.
The Baroness Munchausen of Sex: Catherine Millet�s book subverts all subtlety, humor, irony, decency, and finer feeling. There is actually much more fun to be had at a Church of England summer f�te than at one of her orgies.
Building the Underground Computer Railroad: Anti-globalization activists in Oakland, Calif., are recycling old machines, loading them with free software and shipping them off to Ecuador.
From MTV to the Taliban: Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith are writing songs about terrorists and the Taliban. So why is country maverick Steve Earle getting all the heat?
Something Like Love: Whip me, spank me, correct my spelling mistakes. James Spader stars in a weird tale about the mysteries of desire.
Kid Lit Grows Up: Inspired by Harry Potter, bestselling authors Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Carl Hiaasen and Isabel Allende are spearheading a renaissance in books that enchant readers of all ages.
Does Poetry Have to Be Dumb to be Popular?: Billy Collins' latest collection makes you realize, if you haven't already, that he'd rather acquire fans than speak to intelligent readers.
P.J. O'Rourke's Letter From Egypt: Why are people in the Middle East so crazy? Here, at the pyramids, was an answer from the earliest days of civilization: 'People have always been crazy'.
Meals Make Us Human: Our species has long been conspicuously more successful in absorbing fat than any other land-based animal - why is that going wrong now?
Becky Sharp Comes to America: Judy Bachrach shows how fallen editrix Tina Brown is the reincarnation of Thackeray's seductive, social-climbing heroine.
The Fifty-first State?: Going to war with Iraq would mean shouldering all the responsibilities of an occupying power the moment victory was achieved.
A Post-Saddam Scenario: Iraq could become America's primary staging ground in the Middle East. And the greatest beneficial effect could come next door, in Iran.
A Grief Like No Other: Americans are fascinated by murders and murderers but not by the families of the people who are killed -- an amazingly numerous group, whose members can turn only to one another for sympathy and understanding.
Jazz: A Musical Discussion: If jazz music has any of the gypsy music's fitness for survival, it will leave a trace, unsoiled by memories of indecorum and police raids.
Feckless in Washington: Bush's economic team inspires little confidence at a time when confidence is badly needed.
The Byron Complex: Byron was the Romantic movement's most flamboyant figure, a revolutionary spirit who fell into writing because he did not have the temperament for politics, and who gave critics plenty to discuss outside of his poetry.
Tragedy in Ireland: William Trevor's thirteenth novel tells perhaps his saddest story yet; of heartache, regret, the stunned accommodations we make to fate and to history, and also our patient pursuit of redemption.
The Dance of the Dinosaurs: Excerpts from 'American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center'.
The Double Man: Why W.H. Auden is an indispensable poet of our time.
Needing the Unnecessary: In the way we live now, you are not what you make. You are what you consume. And most of what you consume is totally unnecessary yet remarkably well made.
The Kerouac Scroll: Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' manuscript is a 120-foot long scroll consisting of a series of single-spaced typed twelve-foot long rolls of paper that have been scotched taped together.
Jack Kerouac and the Satori Highway: Nowhere in the world is there such a crisscrossed intricate web of comings and goings than on the American highway.
The Strange Case of Jack Kerouac's Estate: When he died in 1969, Kerouac left an estate valued at ninety-one dollars. Today, however, that same estate is estimated to be worth approximately ten million dollars.
The Singularly Eventful Life of Benjamin Franklin: To call Franklin's life singular is if anything an understatement. He was an intuitive and brilliant scientist who had 'the same curiosity about the world that drives today's scientists'.
A Wicked Woman's Work: Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, whose very job was the preservation, education and empowerment of Rwanda's women, inspired and orchestrated the rape and murder of at least 250,000 women.
Rolling Back Radical Islam: In peace and war, the American response to the violent extremism that so damages the Islamic world has been as halting and reactive as it has been reluctant.
Draupadi's Tongue: Marathi poet Dilip Chitre pays tribute to Durga Bhagwat, the iconoclastic naturalist and writer who counted Verrier Elwin and Raja Rao among her beaus.
The Awareness of Pathos: Extracts from the Marathi writer Durga Bhagwat's essays on the Mahabharata.
Age of Despair: Extract from 'The Shade of Swords: Jihad and the Conflict Between Islam and Christianity' by M.J. Akbar.
Sticks and Stones and Lemon Cough Drops: Many postwar artists make works in unstable or ephemeral materials. Curators and conservators dealing with latex, lard, bodily fluids, and banana peels are coming up with new preservation strategies.
Sasquatch Is Real: So far, the hunt for Bigfoot has netted only near misses, tall tales, and sarcastic chuckles. But a new generation of high-tech hunters is on the loose.
In Iraqi Kurdistan: With all the debate about whether the United States should go to war with Saddam Hussein's regime, hardly anyone seems to have noticed that the war for Iraq has already begun.
Reach for the Moon: What Jenny Uglow did for 18th-century London in her biography of Hogarth, she has now achieved for another city.
Slim Hope: Anorexia, as Kate Chisholm explains in 'Hungry Hell', has been with us for centuries. So why don't we understand it better?
Fleshing Out the Myth: The first biography of Wilfred Owen to be published in 28 years reveals new information that provides insight into the First World War poet's complex life.
A Casual Kind of Confidence: Carol Ann Duffy's 'Feminine Gospels' is filled with wetnurses, witches, wives and mothers, but it's not all good news...
Go Stake Your Claim: Forest, desert, mountain, whatever -- a primer on finding your patch of paradise.
The A-Team: Introducing the 25 most extraordinary people in the world outside, from hard-core adventurers to world-changing environmentalists.
Life's Swell: The 1998 article behind the Hollywood hit, 'Blue Crush'. To be a surfer girl in Maui is to be the luckiest of creatures. It means you're beautiful and tan and ready to rip.
Terms of Endowment: Find out a thousand more things about men than you ever imagined asking in Steve Jones's 'Y: The Descent of Man'.
That Sinking Feeling: Arnold Wesker -- grateful not to be included in the group for once -- finds Humphrey Carpenter's 'literary comedy', 'The Angry Young Men', short on insight and long on gossip.
Captain's Log: Tony Horwitz makes Cook's voyages all the more heroic by describing his time aboard an 18th-century ship in his biography of the explorer, 'Into the Blue'.
Name of the Prose: Anonymity is the theme tune of Zadie Smith's occasionally brilliant second novel.
Talking Books: 'Shop Talk', a collection of Philip Roth's conversations with Primo Levi, Milan Kundera and other writers, reveals his genius for getting others to talk.
Why Havana Had to Die: The ruins of Havana that Fidel Castro has brought into being are, in fact, the habitation of over one million people.
Echoes of D.H.: Michel Houellebecq, Europe's most inflammatory writer, has raised the stakes again with a novel that lauds sex tourism and curses Islam.
The Crimes of 'Intcom': The term "the international community" is regularly used in a technical sense to describe the United States joined by some allies and clients.(
The Origin of Specious: Why the reductionists are winning the Darwin wars.
Lives of the Mind: What explains the recent fashion for biographies of philosophers? Why do so few of them combine both good philosophy and vivid writing?
The Best Offense: Alan Dershowitz's new book will anger unreconstructed civil libertarians, the government-phobes on the extreme right, and Arafat's European apologists.
The One That Got Away: For six years, novelist Thomas Keneally trained to be a priest. Just weeks before ordination he left the seminary, plagued by doubts about the 'cold corporate institution' of the Catholic church.
Smooth Operator: William Kennedy's gritty tale of New York political life, 'Roscoe', is a work to be admired.
America -- Love It Or Dump On It: Anti-Americanism is an emotion substituting for an analysis, a morality, an ideal, even an idea about what to do.
Islamic Studies' Young Turks: A new generation of scholars deplores problems of Muslim world and seeks internal solutions.
Comparing the Western and Islamic Worlds: Roger Scruton does not pretend to solve the problems he addresses, but he has framed those problems compellingly.
Defying Hitler: A newly discovered memoir by a German classified as 'Aryan' describes the insidious early spread of Nazism and how hard it was to resist.
The Revolt of Islam: If bin Laden is correct in his calculations and succeeds in his war, then a dark future awaits the world, especially the part of it that embraces Islam.
Thr Dream Master: The stories of Arthur Schnitzler, the amoral voice of fin-de-si�cle Vienna.
Nudge-Winking: The Criterion would be Eliot's chief organ of such Kulturkritik, dedicated to a revival of classical European Christian civilization.
The Big Chill: On Sept. 11, the fianc�es and partners of many who died suffered a double loss. Lacking the legal status of spouses, they were denied public legitimacy and, in some cases, the support of a loved one's family.
Mozilla Rising: Netscape won't dislodge Internet Explorer from its hegemony over browser space. But its open-source sibling is aiming at even bigger game: Windows.
Lost in Space: Aimee Mann talks about addiction, depression, compulsion, her new album 'Lost in Space' -- and freedom from major-label tyranny.
Every Good Boy Deserves Favor: The author of 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' has overcome youthful tragedy to live a charmed life -- but he's still just a slick showman with a high IQ.
Was Hitler Human?: John Cusack talks about his new movie 'Max' which is sparking a firestorm even before its opening.
Why Havana Had to Die: The ruins of Havana that Fidel Castro has brought into being are, in fact, the habitation of over 1 million people.
Echoes of D.H.: Michel Houellebecq, Europe's most inflammatory writer, has raised the stakes again with a novel that lauds sex tourism and curses Islam.
The Crimes of 'Intcom': The term "the international community" is regularly used in a technical sense to describe the United States joined by some allies and clients.
The Origin of Specious: Why the reductionists are winning the Darwin wars.
Lives of the Mind: What explains the recent fashion for biographies of philosophers? Why do so few of them combine both good philosophy and vivid writing?
The Best Offense: Alan Dershowitz's new book will anger unreconstructed civil libertarians, the government-phobes on the extreme right, and Arafat's European apologists.
An Army of One?: In the war on terrorism, alliances are not an obstacle to victory. They're the key to it.
Confidence Men: Why the myth of Republican competence persists, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Tuning out the World: Despite the events of Sept 11, 2001, Americans' interest in foreign affairs is as low as ever.
Iraq & al-Qaeda - Is There a Link?: The go-to-war camp would love to prove that Saddam Hussein is doing business with Osama bin Laden, but no one's got proof.
The Trick Is Not to Act Like a Lawyer: That's just one of the secrets of Rusty Hardin, the latest in Houston's long line of flamboyant defense attorneys.
A Long, Staid Trip: How Deadheads ruined the Grateful Dead.
Raising Cane: Malaysia's tough new penalties against illegal immigrants are souring Kuala Lumpur's relations with Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Growing Global Tide of Anti-Americanism: The entire Arab world would be radicalized and destabilized if the U.S. attacks Iraq, says Salman Rushdie.
Why Arabs Lose Wars: A retired U.S. army colonel examines the impact of culture on Arab military effectiveness.
Terror and the English Language: This year's crop of terrorism books offers more thrills than insights.
A Life of Ranked Priorities: Sometimes if there's a book you really want to read, you have to write it yourself, says Ann Patchett.
The Gullibility of Conan Doyle: Will believers in pseudoscience ever learn to distinguish between sense and nonsense?
The Most Dangerous Institution: For nearly 100 years, the FBI has been fighting for America with its professionalism and shadowy, extralegal tactics.
Breakfast at Empathy's: 'Sex and the City''s bittersweet fifth season finally makes the small drama of female friendship worth your attention.
Amsterdam at 7,000 Feet: Manali has kind bud. It's known as the head shop of India.
Literary Agents: 'Possession' suffers from insufficient nastiness. Manoel de Oliveira's 'I'm Going Home' is a highly intertextual work.
Busted: George Soros explains why the markets can't fix themselves.
Industrial Symphony: The greatest of all pulp fantasies, Fritz Lang's 1927 'Metropolis' vividly visualized the industrialization of social relations.
Guilty Pleasure in Another's Woe: Taking their cues from evolutionary biology and psychology, a group of scientists is looking at schadenfreude with a clinical eye.
Ask the Pilot: How hard is it fly an airliner? And why can't you keep your tray table down during takeoff?
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Evil: What kind of person can attack, mutilate and kill a total stranger or even a neighbor? A scholar talks about the dark potential in all of us.
After Victory: Thirty-five years ago this summer, in one of the shortest wars in modern history, Israel confronted and destroyed the combined armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, established itself as a regional superpower.
A Hippie Chick's Facelift Musings: No self-respecting hippie chick would ever want to look like a Beverly Hills real estate agent.
Vets Vie with Newbie in Booker Stakes: Two of Britain's most senior award-winning novelists will compete with a 26-year-old former restaurant dishwasher for this year's �50,000 Booker prize for fiction. Booker Prize 2002: The Longlist
Flower Power Daze: 'Give the Anarchist a Cigarette' by Mick Farren is an almost instantly engaging memoir of the 1960s from One Who Was There.
Do the Locomotion: Jenny Diski lets Amtrak take the strain and discovers modern America in 'Stranger on a Train'.
Hit Charade: 2001 may not be the year the music died, but the pop biz did develop a nagging headache, and it's not going away.
Get More Satisfaction: A new audio technology puts the Rolling Stones live in your living room.
When Worlds Collide: How does Joyce Carol Oates, an academic with fiercely old-fashioned values, feel about Oprah fans using her novels as therapy?
'Sight' Unchanged: In an era when best-of lists and expert polls have degenerated into promotional devices, one poll still has a grip on the imaginations of film aficionados the world round.
The Grateful Dead, Alive Again: In a box set that captures the earliest (and best) of this problematic band, you can find a dark side that meshes perfectly with the times.
The Life of the Dead: Band insider Dennis McNally talks about his new 600-page biography of the Grateful Dead, and answers questions about their long, strange trip.
Too Hot to Handle: The New York Fire Department suffered a communications breakdown on Sept. 11, 2001, and hundreds of firefighters died. Why are so many journalists ignoring the story?
The Left Has Lost Its Voice: Camille Paglia on why the language of leftism desperately needs reconstruction and revitalization.
The Glowing World: Contemporary artists no longer understand their materials the way the artisans of the Middle Ages did.
The Search for Immortality: The defining political conflict of the 21st century will be the battle over life and death.
The Joy of Living Dangerously: Forget exams and league tables, writes Richard Dawkins. Real education is about the power of knowledge and the thrill of discovery.
Fertile Imaginations: Suddenly, crop circles are hot. They're hip. They're not just for New Age neo-Druid saucer freaks anymore.
Blitzed by Russia's Pawn Star: Dark-eyed, raven-haired 18-year-old grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk is the pin-up of world chess.
Long Live the King: Elvis Presley died 25 years ago this week, but the bizarre and marvellous world of Elvismania will never die.
Love in a Cold Climate: Director Neil LaBute, with help from a glowing Gwyneth Paltrow, defies all expectations in his glorious, difficult and tender screen adaptation of A.S. Byatt's literary romance 'Possession'.
Banter with Byatt: The author of 'Possession' on the dark side of utopia, the chains of literary feminism and the albatross of sex.
An Opinionated Traveler Drawn to the Developing World: V. S. Naipaul's haphazard and lumpy new collection, 'The Writer and the World', is essentially a repackaging of his earlier work.
John Waters, Wholesome Guy: How the Prince of Puke, the Baron of Bad Taste, the Duke of Dirt, the Pope of Trash became the Queen of Clean, the Pope of Pop, the Sultan of Schmaltz, the Duke of Do-Goodery and the Baron of Broadway.
The Angry American: Toby Keith's two-fisted 9/11 song has put him on top of the charts again.
In Lukewarm Blood: 'Blood Work' is an anemic dud; 'The Good Girl' is funny but contemptuous.
Lightness at Midnight: While applauding his friend Martin Amis for making 'us wince again at things we already knew' with his book 'Koba the Dread', Christopher Hitchens accuses him of 'solipsism' and of 'mushy secondhand observations'.
The Gulag Argumento: Martin Amis swings at Stalin and hits his own best friend instead.
Fool's Gold: The economy's in chaos. The world's a mess. So why are gold prices stagnant?
Will Charlton Heston Have to Give Up His Guns?: If he is diagnosed with full-blown Alzheimer's, will the actor have to give up his firearms?
The Sept. 11 Symphony: Why New York asked composer John Adams to commemorate 9/11.
The Media Titans Still Don't Get It: Corporate America lost billions on the Net. That doesn't mean the medium has no value -- but the moguls remain clueless about where it lies.
Ira Einhorn's Long, Strange Trip: After two decades on the run from a horrific murder, the counterculture icon is home and headed for trial. But in France, he's still a human rights hero.
The Odds of That: Without coincidence, there would be few movies worth watching and literary plots would come grinding to a disappointing halt.
Gossip May Be Virtuous: Gossip is a basic human activity that enhances our understanding of human nature and the world around us. We should be grateful for the opportunities for pleasure talking to people about people offers us.
English Happens!: So, in our post-purist milieu, we can absorb Godfrey Howard's offerings in 'A Guide to English in the 21st Century' like postgame-show gab about sports or politics: entertaining kibbitzing about a complicated universe.
Bubble Trouble: Malcolm Balen's history of the South Sea Bubble, 'A Very English Deceit', reveals the greed and credulity behind the first great stock-market sting.
Francis Fukuyama: Has History Restarted Since September 11?: September 11 would seem to qualify, prima facie, as an historical event, and the fact that it was perpetrated by a group of Islamic terrorists who reject virtually all aspects of the modern Western world, lends credence, at least on the surface, to Samuel Huntington�s �clash of civilisations� hypothesis.
Classical Record Business Goes Cottage: The classical record business boomed through the 1980s and early 1990s, but by the end of the 20th century it tanked, and pundits said it was dead.
The Kurosawa-Mifune of the Mountain Dew Generation: 'XXX' is perhaps the silliest movie ever to certify the arrival of a major star since 'The Fast and the Furious', the last Cohen-Diesel collaboration. It's more like the world's biggest reset button.
Brit Wit: Dubbed 'England's Mike Myers', Steve Coogan is revered in his home country as a comic genius.
The '80s are the Thing Now: Dance clubs devoted to '80s pop culture have been springing up from Chicago to London, from Berlin to Brooklyn, all of them echoing with the thumping sound of '80s synth-pop groups.
Why Rights Can Be Wrong: A new book finds that those who champion human rights benefit themselves more than their supposed beneficiaries.
The 'Shame' of Rape: Why does the media hide rape victims who fight back instead of honoring them as heroes?
I See London, I See France: Beauty queens abdicate amid charges of accidental nudity and wanton naughtiness.
Bush's Gulf War Syndrome: Never has a war been so heavily signposted so long in advance, to the general indifference of so many. Far from being a 'safe bet', the Bush administration's plans to attack Iraq have highlighted its inability to act decisively.
The New Nostalgia: Why are young adults getting teary-eyed for childhoods they have just left behind?
Vintage Vidiya: V. S. Naipaul, at 70, speaks about his controversial career and reveals that for the first time in his life, he's doing nothing.
Everybody's Doing It: Drugs, drugs, violence and more drugs: since 'Trainspotting' gave his 'underground people' a public platform, Irvine Welsh has chronicled the coping mechanisms of the culture that spawned him.
The Praise Singer: Geoffrey Hill's first poems were published when he was a working-class student at Oxford. Dogged by depression for many years, he finally found personal happiness in America. But his new work is as passionately uncompromising as ever.
The Roots of History: For 40 years, J.A. Rogers studied sources from Homer to Hitler for his life's work: an encyclopaedic survey of interracial sex that threatened to overwhelm its author.
Black Brit-Rock Comedy: '24 Hour Party people' is a dizzying saga of the '80s Manchester music scene is garish, reckless, endlessly self-indulgent and totally untrustworthy. What a blast!
A Meat-and-Potatoes Mystery: Clint Eastwood gets a new heart, but never cracks a smile, in 'Blood Work', his latest competent, hard-boiled detective yarn.
Asia Argento is a Hottie: Hollywood dream girl or sacrificial vamp in her own cracked art-house fantasies? But, for now at least, you can't take your eyes off her.
The Next Action Hero: It's not just Vin Diesel's brawn but his multiethnic background that gives the 'XXX' star mass appeal.
Vin is In: Vin Diesel is not a likely icon of lust. So how else to explain his overpowering magnetism?
XXXtreme Fun: In his latest slam-bang venture, Vin Diesel not only single-handedly rescues the action genre, but also displays exquisite table manners.
�XXX� Threat: Goodbye, Mister Bond; in Vin Diesel, Hollywood invents a spy hero who can save the world without knowing how to mix a martini.
Scenes from a Provincial Life: She was a bourgeois narcissist in 19th-century France who was destroyed by her daydreams. But the brilliantly observed tragedy of Flaubert's Madame Bovary still resonates today.
The Snuff Film: One of the most enduring, and little-recognized, urban legends about cinema is the 'snuff film', in which actresses are supposedly actually killed onscreen.
The Decline and Fall of Literature: Should the teaching of English be given a decent burial, or is there life in it yet?
The Baghdad Double-Whammy: Bereft of a credible Evil Empire, the Bush administration will have to finally hunker down and deal with those forces at home, including some of the president's Cabinet and business cronies, who so far have done far more than Saddam to damage America.
The Story of Barbed Wire: Here's how a simple twist of spiked metal ravaged the American West, crucified a generation of young men and terrorized millions of Europeans.
Post Shakespeare: Victor Hugo raised him in a s�ance, Voltaire ripped him off and Byron called him a vulgar dog. The world's great writers just can't leave Shakespeare alone.
Dykes on Bikes with Mikes: Lynn Breedlove takes us to her manic world of speed freaks, strippers and queer-core punk rock.
But Enough about You: From Britney Spears to Angelina Jolie to robber CEOs, narcissists are selfish, maddening egotists -- and yet we just can't get enough of them.
The Case for Raymond Chandler: The creator of Philip Marlowe has been called an imitator and a hack, but he deserves his lonely, disillusioned corner in the American literary canon.
Out of This World: Hollywood is fat and happy with its summer of sequels. Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away -- Philadelphia -- director M. Night Shyamalan is proving himself to be our next great storyteller. A close encounter with the man behind �Signs�.
Families, Fear and Faith: In �Signs,� Shyamalan shows that he understands how to scare us and still make us think about what matters most.
The Plot Thickeners: Remember when only celebrities and CEOs hired novelists to write their books? Now the novelists are hiring novelists.
The Upside of the Down Market: Corporate corruption has its advantages.
The Devil You Know: Dale Peck reviews 'The Devil's Larder' by Jim Crace.
The Moody Blues: 'Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation', is the opening line of Dale Peck's scathing and controversial review of 'The Black Veil: A Memoir With Digressions'.
The Spies Who Thrilled Me: The truth is that a lot of the great old spy movies aren't so great, but the sexiness and style of James Bond and the Avengers never gets old.
All Beef and No Bull: Is legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans feeding us a load of crap in the documentary 'The Kid Stays in the Picture'? When it's this much fun, who really cares?
A Golden Shower of Toilet Humor: 'Austin Powers in Goldmember' is an unreasonably silly mess. But Mike Myers' superspy spoof still provides the summer's purest movie delight.
How Life Began: Microbes have been found to thrive on boiling heat, freezing cold, radiation and toxic chemicals, triggering a revolution in biology.
Falling Out of Love: It looks like America's love affair with George W. Bush is coming to an end.
Meat market plunges to Five-Year Low: Shaken confidence, lower interest rates, slow recovery: A new season of 'Sex and the City' explores the darker side of serial monogamy and finds it's a bear.
Tadpole: A wannabe comedy of manners about a brainy prep-school kid with a Mrs. Robinson complex founders on its own preciousness -- and squanders its beautiful women.
Pecked: Dale Peck's scathing review of Rick Moody and a dozen other writers of 'postmodern drivel' has the literary world buzzing about what makes for good -- and bad -- criticism.
A Dynasty�s Dilemma: The war�s gone well, but the economy�s hurting. Sound familiar? As the markets fall, No. 43 has to learn the lessons that ended his dad�s career.
The Eminem of Politics: Why Clinton is now a hot commodity.
Home Sweet Piggy Bank?: The dangers of buying stock against your home.
Greed R.I.P. (For Now): The high priest of capitalism scourges a deadly sin. If �infectious� avarice is a spiritual illness, no one may get a clean bill of health.