Mona Simpson
Recent articles by Mona Simpson
Imperfect Union
A brilliant new book probes the intimate, unequal relationship between Virginia Woolf and the woman who cared for her.
If This Is a Man
Primo Levi’s Holocaust memoirs stand among the best literature of the 20th century, but his greatest creation was himself.
Fiction
A review of Tales of Chekhov
True North
A career-spanning anthology reveals again why Alice Munro is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years.
New York State of Mind
In praise of Deborah Eisenberg’s nonchalant sophistication.
Found in Translation?
A new version of War and Peace seeks naturalism through slang.
Serf Advisory
A practical guide for hired help, from the eighteenth century to ours.
The Minister's Tale
Marilynne Robinson's long-awaited second novel is an almost otherworldly book—and reveals Robinson as a somewhat otherworldly figure herself.
"Loosie!"
The rise and fall of a great collaboration.
Book Group in Chadors
An outstanding and unusual memoir of post-revolutionary Iran.
Coming of Age on Long Island
Child of My Heart represents a radical—if characteristically quiet— departure in Alice McDermott's fiction.
A Quiet Genius
Alice Munro is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years.