October 13, 2022 • By Connor Harrison
The best form of education, as the Greeks knew, is collaborative. But I am no Socrates and you are not a classroom of Platos, if that is the correct plural form. Nonetheless, we shall engage in dialogue. At the same time — and since you are no longer in primary school — I shall not dispense milksop encouragement and bland approval. For some of you, I may well not be the best teacher, in the sense of the one most suited to your temperament and cast of mind.
“Monotheism,” said Elizabeth Finch. “Monomania. Monogamy. Monotony. Nothing good begins this way.” She paused. “Monogram — a sign of vanity. Monocle ditto. Monoculture — a precursor to the death of rural Europe. I am prepared to acknowledge the usefulness of a monorail. There are many neutral scientific terms which I am also prepared to admit. But where the prefix applies to human business. … Monoglot, the sign of an enclosed and self-deluding country. The monokini, as facetious an etymology as it is a garment. Monopoly — and I do not refer to the board game — always a disaster if you give it time. Monorchid: a condition to be pitied but not aspired to. Any questions?
Julian Barnes’s Anti-Brexit Belle Époque
A novel about a 19th-century French gynecologist tells us about life in the Brexit era....
A Sane Man in a Demented Age: On Julian Barnes’s “The Man in the Red Coat”
Richard M. Cho appreciates "The Man in the Red Coat," the new biography of Samuel Jean Pozzi by Julian Barnes....
Annotations of Pain: First Love in “The Only Story”
Thomas J. Millay finds Julian Barnes’s “The Only Story” a perplexing, profoundly enjoyable story about the phenomenology of love....
Completing the Portrait: John Banville Tells Us What Isabel Archer Does Next
Thomas J. Millay reviews John Banville's "Mrs. Osmond," his continuation of "The Portrait of a Lady."...
On Leaving, Love, and Country: An Interview with Colm Tóibín
An interview with Colm Tóibín, author of "Brooklyn."...
The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts.
Los Angeles Review of Books 6671 Sunset Blvd., Ste 1521 Los Angeles, CA 90028
GENERAL INQUIRIES [email protected] MEMBERSHIP INQUIRIES [email protected] EDITORIAL INQUIRIES [email protected] PRESS INQUIRIES [email protected] ADVERTISING INQUIRIES [email protected] PURCHASE INQUIRIES [email protected]