Interpersonal relations

Breaking Points

By Agnes Callard,

From “Romance Without Love, Love Without Romance,” which was published in the Spring 2021 issue of Liberties. I have only ever had one friend as crazy as I am. Once,…

Friends with Benefits

By Mary Ruefle,

From the essay “Dear Friends,” which was published in the Winter 2021 issue of The Sewanee Review. i have a friend who has never read a single word I have…

American Dreamers

From posts to the Missed Connections section of Craigslist, where users recount interactions with strangers in the hopes of finding them again. 6 train smile, new york city I just…

By Charles Yu, Mike Jaccarino, A. S. Hamrah, Eileen Myles, Judith Martin, Olivia Laing, Yinka Elujoba, Lauren Oyler, Jane Hu, Liane Carlson, David Owen, Christian Lorentzen, Christopher Beha,

Reality after trump Tabloids after trump Movies after trump Relationships after trump Manners after trump Imagination after trump Gold after trump Conversation after trump Punctuation after trump Apologies after trump…

Mr. Jones and Me

By T. Phillip Madison,

From a survey in which participants were asked to rank their agreement with statements about Alex Jones, the host of the right-wing talk show Infowars, from “never” to “all the…

Occupied Territory

By Rebecca Solnit,

One morning, as I walked on the quiet, mostly wooded King Mountain trail above San Francisco Bay, a dog not much smaller than I and possessed of much sharper teeth…

The New New Narcissism

By Kristin Dombek,

By Kristin Dombek, from The Selfishness of Others, a monograph that was published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Dombek is the recipient of a 2013 Rona Jaffe award.…

Isn’t It Romantic?

By Gemma Sieff,

Looking for love in the age of Tinder

X, the scourge

By Susan Sontag, Edited by David Rieff,

Readings

Art by Laylah Ali,

The uses of disaster