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Must Every New Coming-of-Age Novel Be 'the Next Catcher in the Rye?'
For decades, reviewers and readers have eagerly compared works of fiction about young people to J.D. Salinger's 1951 classic—which is more apt in some cases than in others.
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Attention '50 Shades' Copycats: Rip Off the Orgasms, Not the Whips and Chains
This week's "Diary of a Submissive" tries to cash in on the year's big publishing craze. But it misunderstands what made the original so popular.
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Two Movies That Show Why Society Turns Criminals Into Celebrities
The lessons of Frank Pierson's 'Cool Hand Luke' and 'Dog Day Afternoon' ring profoundly after the shootings in Aurora.
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Does Artistic Collaboration Ever Work?
How creativity is both nurtured and thwarted when people team up
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Susana Vera / Reuters Trickle-Down Distress: How America's Broken Meritocracy Drives Our National Anxiety Epidemic
Anxiety is growing into a peculiarly American phenomenon. How did we become the world's leading exporter of worrywarts?
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Hollywood's Problem With Senior-Citizen Sex
The newly reissued 'Harold and Maude' is funny, but it didn't treat Maude's love life as a joke.
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Hey, Let's Not Get Carried Away: Anti-Depressants Really Do Help People
Bashing mental health drugs has become a popular trend of late. But just because some people are taking SSRIs that don't need them doesn't mean all such drugs are bad.
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What Does a Radical Look Like?
A new exhibition of Richard Avedon's photography shows off the sartorial choices of activists like Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg.
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What's So Crazy About an Arranged Marriage?
Nell Freudenberger's new novel, "The Newlyweds," tells the story of a couple that marries for practical—not romantic—reasons. Is that really such a bad idea?
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Why Storytellers Lie
A new book explains humans like to spin yarns—and why we're so likely to stretch the truth when we do.
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A Slow-Books Manifesto
Read books. As often as you can. Mostly classics.
