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Today in The New York Review of Books: Mark Danner finds Trump in his dotage; Jonathan Mingle trails an Indian climate activist; Julian Bell praises the sacred paintings of Francisco de Zurbarán; a poem by Rowan Ricardo Phillips; and, from the archives, Darryl Pinckney on James Baldwin

Deborah Eisenberg
Out of the Rubble

In novels written immediately after World War II, Wolfgang Koeppen mined the conscience of Germany.

Laura Marsh
Home Invasions

In John Lanchester’s novel Look What You Made Me Do, a couple’s private language is weaponized against them.

Tara Raghuveer
The Road to the Rent Freeze

This summer New York’s tenants won their years-long fight to protect nearly half the city’s apartments from rent hikes. Where can the movement go from here?

Wolfram Lacher
Libya: The Dangerous Gamble

For six years a fragile stalemate has kept Libya’s conflict frozen. A new US-brokered mediation effort risks upending that balance.

Blueprint

a poem by
Elizabeth Metzger

Some friends call mine a spiritual problem
and when they do
I become the minister of the real
and go on Zillow
moving my future into various crannies of Los
Angeles…

Free from the Archives

Philip Larkin was born 104 years ago today. In the Review’s June 11, 1964, issue, we published four of his poems: “Dockery and Son,” “Home Is So Sad,” “Reference Back,” and “MCMXIV.”

Four Poems

by Philip Larkin

HOME IS SO SAD

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft…

Homer vs. Hollywood: Discussing Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey

In this special hour-long edition of NYRSeminars recorded on July 29, Daniel Mendelsohn discusses Christopher Nolan’s polarizing blockbuster adaptation of the Odyssey. Mendelsohn outlines his judgment of the film and then opens the floor to questions from audience members. You may watch the video here for free.

For a limited time, we are also offering a special 25% discount code toward purchase of the recordings of Mendelsohn’s six-part Odyssey seminar as well as three of his books about classical themes, Three Rings, Ecstasy and Terror, and Waiting for the Barbarians, all published by New York Review Books. Use the links above or the code “odysseyevent” at checkout in our shops (shop.nybooks.com and www.nyrb.com) to receive the discount.

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