Sam Sacks

Fort Boyard, an oval shaped stone fortress built in the water

A view of Fort Boyard, built during the reign on Louis XIV and currently the site of France's most famous game show

Still reeling from a vivid and disturbing dream in which my 7-year-old son covered his back and chest with tattoos. On his back he had an elaborate design modeled on old-fashioned marbled endpapers. On his chest he had a Pokémon.

“I have friends who think that our society is destroying itself through sheer hedonism. I am far more pessimistic than that.” My latest book column for @plough.bsky.social is fun, I promise!!

Hits to the economy, ongoing or coming soon: tariff-induced inflation, loss of tourism spending by foreign visitors, loss of income from foreign students, depletion of labor supply because of ICE crackdown, retrenchment of capital expenditure by businesses made wary by unpredictable tariffs,

That's fair enough! For me, though, it's a fuzzy sort of evidence, since the links are not strictly citations; mostly they link to other reviews or essays, which is a sort of special pleading for an argument that is written so as to not require it.

Horace: Poet on a Volcano by Peter Stothard — Open Letters Review An invigorating new biography of the great Roman poet Horace

Steve Donoghue reviewed it for Open Letters: "After 2000 years of constant attention, it's doubtful anything new could be written about this author. But it’s all done with so much clear, assessing affection that it mostly makes the old story feel fresh again" openlettersreview.com/posts/horace...

‘Horace’ Review: An Ode to the Poet Horace prospered in the late Roman Republic and the empire of Augustus. His poetic works captured the image of their vicious times.

"He balanced intimacy and flattery while ridiculing new money and mocking himself as chubby, randy and sweaty." Dominic Green on Peter Stothard's new biography of the poet Horace. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

It's my own problem for not subscribing to the print issues, but the amount of hyperlinking in New York magazine online pieces makes them genuinely disagreeable to read. In this paragraph, for instance, it would make sense to link to the Harper's letter, but the rest is just clutter.

"Count Tolstoî Not Obscene." The 1890 New York Times article reporting the court order that ended the ban on the distribution of 'The Kreutzer Sonata' imposed by the US Post Office and then-Attorney General Theodore Roosevelt.
timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine...

Elegy for the Shtetl | Daphne Merkin Chaim Grade became a writer in Lithuania but wrote his best novels in the Bronx after the Holocaust, recording in Yiddish the conflict between Jewish tradition and secular thinking that had characteri...

Daphne Merkin says there was a: "cascade of pieces about [Chaim Grade's] unfinished and posthumously published final novel", but 𝑆𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐷𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 still seems to me to have gotten less attention than it should have, so it's good to see her review @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202... [$] ...

In theory it's good to know what people in this administration are thinking; in practice you get interviews like this, where not one question is answered without five minutes of empty spin. This guy has no idea why he's doing anything he's doing except that it undercuts the opposite political party.

RIP to the Jolly Postman. “Each Peach Pear Plum” is still among the perfect books.

Real-world consequences of protectionism spelled out clearly here--cratering employment in small countries and the resurgence of corrupt lobbying

In a Country Trump Says Nobody’s Heard Of, Tariffs Bring Chaos President Trump promised Africa that trade would replace aid, but in one of the world’s poorest countries his administration is slashing both.

President Trump promised Africa that trade would replace aid, but in one of the world’s poorest countries his administration is slashing both.

Fiction: ‘Daikon’ by Samuel Hawley Plus “The Original” by Nell Stevens and “The Hounding” by Xenobe Purvis.

Three speculative historical novels for this weekend's WSJ column: Japan gets its hands on a U.S. atomic weapon during WWII; a Victorian-era art forger is entangled in a pretender's inheritance claim; & orphaned sisters in 18th-c. England are accused of turning into dogs www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Jackson Lears · The Righteous Community: Legacies of the War on Terror Once the US became the world’s only superpower, universalist fantasies proliferated. But after 9/11 they widened,...

"Before 9/11, prime-time television showed fewer than four scenes of torture per year; after 9/11, it showed more than a hundred." Jackson Lears reviews Richard Beck's 'Homeland,' "an indispensable account of how we got to the terrible place we are in." www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Global Trade Raised Living Standards for Millions. New Barriers Are Reversing the Trend. In Indonesia and elsewhere, export manufacturing helped narrow the wealth gap with the West, creating a consumer class, but that transformation has stalled.

A big blow to the global south. www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...

Pan — a strange and original portrait of teen chaos Michael Clune’s luminous debut novel captures the angst of growing up in suburban America

A debut novel by a critic about the mysteries of consciousness and being a teenager in the 90s that is extremely fun and quotable. Naturally I loved Pan by Michael Clune... My review for @ftweekend.com: www.ft.com/content/af7c...

A great book, as is 'The Innocent Eye'

Roger Shattuck's 'The Banquet Years, The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France 1885 to World War I : Alfred Jarry, Henri Rousseau, Erik Satie, Guillaume Appolinaire'

An additional hope of mine is that interest in Penman's latest interests a press in turn to reprint Shattuck's fantastic book @herbert-pfostl.bsky.social @uniformbooks.bsky.social

Fiction: ‘The Palm-Wine Drinkard’ and ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ The Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola wove Yoruba legends of spirits and magic into quirky modern novels that mix the real and the mythological.

I've long been curious to read Amos Tutuola and Grove's reissues of his first two books have finally given me the excuse. My WSJ piece from last weekend on this fascinating writer--a vibrant folklorist and accidental modernist; "a pioneer but a challenging precedent." www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

An ashtray filled with tiny fried fish heads

Appetizer remnants

Marcel Duchamp designed binding for Ubu Roi (1935)

All The Traditions All The Traditions is our folk and world music show. Host Robert Resnik loves musical "show and tell," and particularly loves to showcase the many talented musicians who live in the listening area. Yo...

I will miss hearing his voice on the radio every Sunday night.

His last live episode was a Father’s Day show and you can find the recording and playlist here:

www.vermontpublic.org/show/all-the...

That's Alvin Lustig!

Fiction: ‘Pan’ by Michael Clune Plus Debbie Urbanski’s “Portalmania” and Ed Park’s “An Oral History of Atlantis.”

We seem to be going through another round of the-death-of-American-literature essays. Since all arguments need counterpoints, here’s a column on new books by three writers with huge talent and promise—Michael Clune, Debbie Urbanski & Ed Park (gift link). www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

Why Israel’s Chaotic New Food Program in Gaza Has Turned So Deadly A visit to one distribution site shows how a system designed to squeeze out the U.N. and Hamas continues to draw hungry Palestinians into deadly encounters.

A visit to a food-distribution site in Gaza shows how Israel’s new aid program has lured so many Palestinians into deadly chaos.

Pope Leo slams 'barbarity' of Gaza war as Israeli gunfire kills at least 93 at aid point Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces opened fire Sunday on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to collect humanitarian aid, providing a toll of at least 93 people killed. The latest deaths came...

Pope Leo slams 'barbarity' of Gaza war as Israeli gunfire kills at least 67 at aid point

www.france24.com/en/middle-ea...

The bewildering phenomenon of declining quality Airplane seats are getting smaller and smaller, clothes are unrecognizable after the second wash, and machines now answer our calls. Quality and care for craftsmanship seem to be things of the past

Is everything getting worse?

english.elpais.com/culture/2025...