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More on books, literature, and the arts in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly.

Atlantic Unbound | Updated January 31, 2001

Books by Atlantic contributors
August 2000 - January 2001

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Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews
by James Carroll
Houghton Mifflin, 576 pages, $28
January 2001

Novelist and cultural critic Carroll confronts the historical and moral burden of the Catholic Church's entrenched anti-Semitism, a legacy of antagonism that Carroll sees as culminating in the "silence" of Pope Pius XII amid the atrocities of the World War II death camps. A former Catholic priest and university chaplain, Carroll infuses his historical narrative with reflections of his personal crisis of conscience over Church doctrine and issues a call for a "Vatican III" that would seek a meaningful course of redemption. "Forgivenness for the sin of anti-Semitism," he writes, "presumes a promise to dismantle all that makes it possible." Carroll is the author of several novels and the memoir An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us, which won the 1996 National Book Award for nonfiction.

Atlantic links:

"The Holocaust and the Catholic Church," by James Carroll (October 1999). A review of Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell.
"The Story of My Life" (April 24, 1997). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Carroll, in which he discusses his book An American Requiem.

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Fast Food Nation
by Eric Schlosser
Houghton Mifflin, 288 pages, $25
January 2001

Schlosser's examination of the American ethos of fast food is a bracing work of investigative reportage and cultural commentary, probing the rampant spread of the fast-food industry and its impact on public health, social welfare, and the job market. In what may be the hardest hitting critique of U.S. food manufacturing and production practices since Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906, Schlosser gathers alarming evidence that current USDA and FDA regulations are not providing sufficient protection for American consumers.

Atlantic links:

"Unhappy Meals" (December 14, 2000). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Eric Schlosser, in which he discusses Fast Food Nation.

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Don Juan:
Comedy in Five Acts
by Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Molière
translated by Richard Wilbur
Harvest Books, 160 pages, $13
January 2001

The distinguished American poet Richard Wilbur is also an estimable translator of classical French drama and verse, including works by Racine and Voltaire in addition to several previous editions of Molière's plays. Don Juan (1665), which Molière wrote while his Tartuffe was banned from the Paris stage, was similarly suppressed for its lashing satire, but has become one of the dramatist's most celebrated comedies. "The pervasive ambiguity of the work," Wilbur writes in his introduction, "which offended the devout of Molière's day, is for us a source of richness and nuance."

Atlantic links:

"A Certain Logic" (September 9, 1999). A conversation between Richard Wilbur and The Atlantic's poetry editor, Peter Davison, in Atlantic Unbound's Poetry Pages. Includes audio recordings of Wilbur reading a selection of his poems from The Atlantic.

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Long Distance:
A Year of Living Strenuously
by Bill McKibben
Simon & Schuster, 192 pages, $23
December 2000

"Partly it was pure selfishness," writes McKibben of his decision to spend a year of his life in rigorous training as a competitive cross-country skier. "After a decade as an environmental writer and activist, I needed a break from failing to save the world. But mostly it was curiosity that drove me. By year's end I hoped I'd have more sense of what life lived through the body felt like." McKibben's previous books include The End of Nature (1989) and The Age of Missing Information (1993).

Atlantic links:

"A Special Moment in History," by Bill McKibben (May 1998). The fate of our planet will be determined in the next few decades, through our technological, lifestyle, and population choices.
"We're All Environmentalists Now. Right?" (September 13-20, 2000). An Atlantic Unbound roundtable, with Eileen Claussen, Gregg Easterbrook, Mary A. Gade, and Bill McKibben.

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PC, M.D.:
How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine
by Sally L. Satel
Basic Books, 256 pages, $27
December 2000

In her stinging rebuke of the American medical establishment, Satel extensively documents the intrusion of "politically correct" ideology into the health-care system and the serious consequences it holds for individual patients and public-health institutions. Satel is a psychiatrist and currently teaches at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Atlantic links:

"The Indoctrinologists Are Coming," by Sally L. Satel (January 2001). An article adapted from PC, M.D.

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Selected Poems and Prose of Paul Celan
translated by John Felstiner
Norton, 416 pages, $29.95
November 2000

Felstiner's translations of the writings of the German Jewish poet Paul Celan (1920-1970) include selections from unpublished and youthful work as well as versions of major postwar poems like "Todesfuge" ("Deathfugue"). Felstiner is the author of Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew (1995), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu (1980), recipient of the Commonwealth Club Gold Medal.

Atlantic links:

"There Was Earth Inside Them" (November 2000). A poem by Paul Celan, translated by John Felstiner. [with audio]

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Eastward to Tartary:
Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus
by Robert D. Kaplan
Random House, 384 pages, $26.95
November 2000

Robert D. Kaplan's new book is in part a sequel to his milestone Balkan Ghosts (1993), which introduced many American readers to the deep historical and cultural rifts that would erupt into warfare throughout the former Yugoslavia. In Eastward to Tartary Kaplan, an Atlantic correspondent, travels through Turkey into Central Asia, documenting the troubled past and volatile present of a region he refers to as the Balkans of the future, the next great faultline of political tension between East and West. Kaplan is the author of several notable works of travel writing and foreign affairs, including The Coming Anarchy (2000) and An Empire Wilderness: Travels into America's Future (1998).

Atlantic links:

"The Lawless Frontier," by Robert D. Kaplan (September 2000). The dark side of globalism on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"Manifest Destiny" (September 16, 1998). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Robert D. Kaplan, in which he discusses An Empire Wilderness.

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Facing the Congo
by Jeffrey Tayler
Ruminator Books, 260 pages, $27
November 20

The chronicle of an expedition up the Congo River by barge and pirogue, in partial reenactment of Henry Morton Stanley's storied trek through the African interior. Tayler, a correspondent based in Moscow and the author of Siberian Dawn: A Journey Across the New Russia (1999), is a frequent contributor to The Atlantic and Atlantic Unbound.

Atlantic links:

"Crossing to Kinshasa," by Jeffrey Tayler (November 16, 2000). An excerpt from Facing the Congo, in Atlantic Unbound.
"Russia's Other World" (March 10, 1999). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Jeffrey Tayler, in which he discusses his book Siberian Dawn.

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Licks of Love:
Short Stories and a Sequel, Rabbit Remembered
by John Updike
Knopf, 359 pages, $25
November 2000

Updike's new work of fiction collects a dozen stories and features a novella-length coda to his quartet of novels starring Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, now deceased but still a presence in the lives of his children and surviving relatives at the turn of the millennium. The title story appeared in the May, 1998, issue of The Atlantic.

Atlantic links:

"Rainbow" (November 2000). A poem by John Updike. [with audio]

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Battle of Wits:
The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II
by Stephen Budiansky
Free Press, 448 pages, $27.50
October 2000

Drawing from records recently released by the U.S. and British governments, Budiansky chronicles how Allied cryptographers deciphered the German Enigma code, Japanese code, and Russian diplomatic codes, detailing the crucial effects codebreaking had on military strategy and battlefield tactics. Budiansky also demonstrates step-by-step the mathematical methods employed by codebreakers throughout the World War II period.

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The Truth About Dogs:
An Inquiry into the Ancestry, Social Conventions, Mental Habits, and Moral Fiber of Canis Familiaris
by Stephen Budiansky
Viking, 263 pages, $24.95
October 2000

In his unsentimental appraisal of the persistent bond between man and canine, Budiansky sifts new research in behavioral science, archaeology, and genetics—including the Dog Genome Project—and draws striking conclusions about the evolutionary and cognitive nature of dogs that have helped them find an ideal survival niche in their symbiotic relationship with human beings. Budiansky is an Atlantic correspondent and the author of several previous books on science and animal behavior, including If a Lion Could Talk: Animal Intelligence and the Evolution of Consciousness (1998) and The Nature of Horses: Exploring Equine Evolution, Intelligence, and Behavior (1997).

Atlantic links:

"The Truth About Dogs," by Stephen Budiansky (July 1999). Man's best friend—or best parasite?
"The Animal Point of View" (December 9, 1998). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Stephen Budiansky, in which he discusses his book If a Lion Could Talk.

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The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000
David Quammen (editor), Burkhard Bilger (series editor)
Houghton Mifflin, 320 pages, $27.50 cloth, $13 paper
October 2000

The inaugural edition of an annual anthology includes three articles (below) originally published in The Atlantic in 1999.

Atlantic links:

"A New Germ Theory," by Judith Hooper (February 1999). Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald proposes a radical explanation about humanity's chronic illnesses.
"Can of Worms," by Kenneth Brower (March 1999). An earthworm controversy rages in the Florida Panhandle.
"Lulu, Queen of the Camels," by Cullen Murphy (October 1999). The sportsmen sheiks of Saudi Arabia are determined to breed the perfect racing dromedary.

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Noodling for Flatheads:
Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and Other Southern Comforts
by Burkhard Bilger
Scribner, 256 pages, $24
September 2000

Bilger's wry and affectionate essays on an offbeat array of folk customs and subcultures harking back to the Old South—coonhunting in Oklahoma, cockfighting in the Louisiana bayous, moonshining in Virginia hill country, feasting on squirrel brains in backwoods Kentucky, among other pursuits—rescue his subjects from stock caricature while denying them none of their colorful peculiarity, suggesting that reports of the rampant homogenization of American culture may be greatly exaggerated. Bilger is an editor at Discover and the series editor of The Best American Science and Nature Writing.

Atlantic links:

"In the Monster's Maw," by Burkhard Bilger (February 1997). Fishing for giant catfish—with your bare hands.
"The Unsung South" (October 26, 2000). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Burkhard Bilger, in which he discusses his book Noodling for Flatheads.

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Breathing Room
by Peter Davison
Knopf, 63 pages, $23
September 2000

Davison's new collection of poems—mostly cast in a supple nonce form of seven tercets and a closing quatrain—contemplate age, memory, and wonders natural and literary, taking an abiding delight in the mind's "juicy swamp of invention." Davison is the author of ten previous collections of poetry and several books of prose, including The Poems of Peter Davison (1995) and the narrative literary history The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston from Robert Frost to Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath, 1955-1960 (1994). He is the poetry editor of, and a frequent contributor to, The Atlantic.

Atlantic links:

"A Poet in His Element" (October 12, 2000). An appreciation of Peter Davison's Breathing Room, in Atlantic Unbound's Poetry Pages, with audio recordings of Davison reading poems that first appeared in The Atlantic.

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Northern Latitudes
by Lawrence Millman
New Rivers Press, 71 pages, $14.95 paper
September 2000

"Eskimos, barren landscapes, glacial erratics, and ineffable cold make my spirits soar," Millman writes of his longstanding passion for the fastnesses of the far north. The author of nine books of travel writing, ethnology, and fiction, Millman has assembled a mosaic of prose vignettes into a "lyric record of my travels in the north" over the past twenty years, blending folklore, fable, anecdote, and aperçu with a sharp naturalist's eye and a flinty appreciation for the region's denizens. Millman's Last Places: A Journey in the North (1990) was reissued this fall in a Mariner Books paperback edition, with a new introduction by Paul Theroux.

Atlantic links:

"Matsutake Fever," by Lawrence Millman (January 10, 2001). An Atlantic Unbound dispatch from the British Columbia mushroom belt.
"An Irresistible, Long-winded Bore," by Lawrence Millman (August 2000). A profile of the writer John Cowper Powys.

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One Good Turn:
A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw
by Witold Rybczynski
Scribner, 176 pages, $22
September 2000

An investigation into the innovation of the device the author lauds as "the best tool of the second millennium," without which there would have been no microscope, no telescope, and no Enlightenment science. Rybczynski, a cultural and urban historian who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, is a frequent contributor to The Atlantic and the author of several books, including Home: The Short History of an Idea (1986) and A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century (1999).

Atlantic links:

"Landscape Artist" (July 14, 1999). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Witold Rybczynski, in which he discusses his book A Clearing in the Distance and the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted.

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Drowning Ruth
by Christina Schwarz
Doubleday, 338 pages, $23.95
September 2000

Schwarz's debut novel revolves around a tragic family mystery in rural Wisconsin, which begins to unfold in the year following the end of the Great War. A sister has died after falling through the ice on a bitter winter's night, leaving the surviving sister to unravel dark secrets as she struggles to keep the rest of the family and its farmlands intact. Christina Schwarz is a regular contributor of articles and reviews to The Atlantic.

Atlantic links:

"Around the Big Bend," by Benjamin and Christina Schwarz (April 2000). Travels in West Texas.
"John O'Hara's Protectorate," by Benjamin and Christina Schwarz (March 2000). Reappraising the reputation of the "big-picture" social novelist.

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Dangerous Games:
Ice Climbing, Storm Kayaking, and Other Adventures from the Extreme Edge of Sports
by Andrew Todhunter
Doubleday, 192 pages, $23.95
September 2000

What passions and motivations spur enthusiasts of extreme sports such as cliff-diving, ice-climbing, and caving? Todhunter's collection of essays and profiles on adventurers devoted to perilous recreational pursuits explores the obsession for risk-taking and the drive to push body and mind to the limits. Portions of the book were originally written for The Atlantic.

Atlantic links:

"On Cannon Cliff," by Andrew Todhunter (November 1999). A tutorial at a classic site with one of America's pre-eminent alpine climbers.
"Dark Passage," by Andrew Todhunter (July 1998). Descending into the depths of California's longest known cave.
"Fear of Falling" (September 3, 1998). An Atlantic Unbound interview with Andrew Todhunter, in which he discusses his book on the rock-climber Dan Osman, Fall of the Phantom Lord.

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Always Beginning:
Essays on a Life in Poetry
by Maxine Kumin
Copper Canyon, 256 pages, $17 paper
August 2000

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet's latest collection of occasional prose includes a memoir of her two-decade friendship with Anne Sexton, a series of journal entries on modern country life, and a meditation on the curative powers of memorizing poems. Kumin is the author of several books of poems, most recently Connecting the Dots (1996) and Selected Poems 1960-1990 (1997).

Atlantic links:

"Oblivion" (November 2000). A poem by Maxine Kumin, and links to a selection of her poems previously published in The Atlantic. [with audio]

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