The Brooklyn Rail
Critical Perspectives on Art, Politics and Culture
MARCH 2009
Express
NYC: A Nice Place to Be Unemployed?
by Richard WellsExpress
Can the "creative class" really save New York City?
Crisis? What Crisis? Singing the Gospel at Crapola’s End
by Christopher KetchamExpress
More good news in crisis from down the block here in Park Slope: The realty office that I could almost spit on from my stoop has shut its doors, boarded up the classy windows, sent its half-breed parasites home, no more to feed on old women tossed from rent control.
Wearing Me: A Tale of T-Shirts
by Rebecca ArmstrongExpress
I bet you own a t-shirt. Depending on your various beliefs and their translations into your shopping tendencies, it comes from one of a few places.
Experimental Geography: From Cultural Production to the Production of Space
by Trevor PaglenExpress
When most people think about geography, they think about maps. Lots of maps. Maps with state capitals and national territories, maps showing mountains and rivers, forests and lakes, or maps showing population distributions and migration patterns.
Remembering Huey Long
by Christian RoselundExpress
As the economic crisis deepens, our nation is continually reminded of the Great Depression. News articles and pundits regularly make comparisons to the troubled times of the 1930s, even if only to remind us that this disaster is not yet as bad.
Lux Interior (RIP)
by Williams ColeExpress
Why did the death of the Cramps’ lead singer Lux Interior seem like the unanticipated punch to the gut? Maybe it’s because the Cramps were the band from the early days of punk that had the feeling of a staple, like the exotic jelly in your fridge—or that old stash—that you dip into once in a while: surprisingly, it never goes bad and you actually enjoy it whenever you bring it out.
Tales from the Other Side, Berger's From A to X: A Story in Letters
by Nicholas JahrExpress
The setup is simple. One prison closes, another opens. The prisoners are transferred. A packet of letters is found. Well, three packets.
Picking Up the Pieces, Sanger's The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power
by Tom BoumanExpress
In the final month of his presidency, George W. Bush asserted more than once that “history would be the judge of [his] decisions.
Inside Detroit , Bergmann's Getting Ghost
by James ArnettExpress
Despite its recent Academy Award for Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire is not without its detractors. Critics have called the film overrated, over-hyped, exploitative, lacking in substance, and wholly unrealistic.
A Different Sort of Romeo, Sandweiss's Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
by Nicholas DeRenzoExpress
Clarence King (1842-1901) was a well-to-do, Newport-born, Yale-educated geologist famous for mapping the Western United States after the Civil War. He drank tea with Queen Victoria, collected fine art, and counted the novelist Henry James as a close personal friend.
A Rather Bestial Fellow, Bailey's Cheever: A Life
by Ian CrouchExpress
It may be impossible to consider the life of John Cheever without hearing his voice. In what seems a duel of arrogance with John Updike on the Dick Cavett Show in 1981, Cheever bests Updike’s lilting eyebrows and imperious posture with an aristocratic drawl that would impress even Katharine Hepburn.
