Books

Love and Work

Freud said you need both, and Anne Roiphe discovered it was so

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SPEAKING VOLUMES I don't think I've ever read a memoir by a living writer that includes a preface by the author's child. This seems like a device from another century, affixed to manuscripts found after death. But such is the case with the very alive Anne Roiphe's newest book Art and Madness: A Memoir of Lust Without Reason , published...

Books

'He Pulled Me Back So I Could Soar'

A tribute to 40 years of artistry at the Met

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Robert Leiter

SPEAKING VOLUMES The Hal Leonard Corporation, which is known for making lovely books about musical matters and releasing them under its various imprints, has outdone itself with its salute to James Levine's 40th anniversary at the Metropolitan Opera. (In this case, the imprint is Amadeus Press and the book is, not surprisingly, titled James Levine: 40 Years at the Metropolitan...

Books

'Panic States'

Early paintings by Eva Hesse chart a difficult period in her brief life

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Robert Leiter

SPEAKING VOLUMES It seems that every season or so, a new book appears about the great artist Eva Hesse, and with each volume, we learn something new about her and her artistic output. Many of these books have been produced by the inestimable Yale University Press, which would have pleased the late artist since the publishing company's standards, especially when...

Books

Putting the Real on the Run

A researcher looks at how technology is transforming our sense of self

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Robert Leiter

SPEAKING VOLUMES Thirty years ago, author Sherry Turkle joined the MIT faculty to study computer culture. A psychoanalytically trained psychologist, she wanted to explore how machines were affecting our sense of self. Back then, she explains in her new book, Alone Together , the world still retained "a certain innocence" in the realm of computing and interactivity. Children's electronic toys...

Books

The Elements of Style

A professor passes sentence on syntax and other tricks of the trade

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Robert Leiter

SPEAKING VOLUMES Aside from Strunk and White's Elements of Style , I've never been much of a fan of books that say they can teach you to write. Elements , a modern classic, is, in reality, a superior and accessible book of grammar that can assist the already proficient to be that much better; but it could never on its...