Defending Willa Cather against historical and critical distortions, the author argues that Cather's central vision was a tragic vision of the human condition rather than a firm political agenda.
Joan Acocella Books
Joan B. Acocella is an American journalist, serving as the dance and book critic for The New Yorker. Her work is distinguished by a profound understanding of the arts and an ability to get to the heart of her subject. Acocella analyzes contemporary dance and literary works with sharp intelligence and a refined style. Her critical essays explore not only aesthetic qualities but also the broader cultural and social contexts of artworks, offering readers insightful and enriching perspectives.
Here is a dazzling collection from Joan Acocella, one of our most admired cultural critics: thirty-one essays that consider the life and work of some of the most influential artists of our time (and two saints: Joan of Arc and Mary Magdalene). Acocella writes about Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor and chemist, who wrote the classic memoir, Survival in Auschwitz; M.F.K. Fisher who, numb with grief over her husband’s suicide, dictated the witty and classic How to Cook a Wolf; and many other subjects, including Dorothy Parker, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Saul Bellow. Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints is indispensable reading on the making of art—and the courage, perseverance, and, sometimes, dumb luck that it requires.
The New Yorker critic examines the books that reveal and record our world in a new essay collection.