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Book reviews

New Books

It is inevitable that some readers will take from Evelyn Barish’s biography of the life and misdeeds of Paul de Man the notion that literary theory is a crock. The title…

The Almighty Dollar

by Gary Greenberg,

America’s self-help gospel

Memory’s Passages

by Sarah Manguso,

The limits of autobiography

Flights of Fancy

by Steven Shapin,

A history of ballooning

Bewitched

by Jenny Diski,

A theory of glamour

The Mercenary Position

by James Marcus,

Can Amazon change its predatory ways?

At Death’s Door

by Bee Wilson,

The hope and hokum of immortality

Winds of Revolt

by Robyn Creswell,

The poetry of Middle Eastern uprising

Bartleby on the Prairie

by Paul Elie,

The unspent life of J. F. Powers

Numerical Madness

by Gideon Lewis-Kraus,

Critiques of a life online

The Commitments

by Michelle Orange,

Love and marriage at the movies