Lionel Shriver

Why Americans love Laura Bush

As Mrs Bush prepares her memoirs, Lionel Shriver unravels the appeal of a First Lady who is as beloved as her husband is disliked. Uneasy about her husband's running for governor of Texas, Mrs Bush actively discouraged him from...

What is Progress? Let the Battle of Ideas decide

By Antara Dev Sen Hallelujah! Some sign of progress in the disturbingly regressive worlds that we lust after. Mr Barack Obama’s victory suggests that America — light of our life, fire of our loins, our sin, our soul — is...

Two on Toni

Two pieces on Toni Morrison: one, a lukewarm review, by Lionel Shriver in the Telegraph, and one on the dangers of celebrity in the Guardian. All writers, to a greater or lesser extent, have to have a private and a public...

Experts Predict Obama Supporters May Feel Let Down If He Wins

Tuesday, November 04, 2008 By Kevin McCandless A supporter wears an Obama watch as the Democratic presidential candidate speaks at a rally in Northern Virginia on Monday, Nov. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) London...

Toni Morrison: a place out of no place

Lionel Shriver enjoys the poerty of a Nobel laureate's new novella, A Mercy, but misses the driving power of its great predecessor In something of a prequel to her gripping 1987 novel Beloved, Toni Morrison's new book, A Mercy,...

Twelve prominent Americans give their verdict George Bush's cultural legacy

One book fair, hours of satire, and the Dixie Chicks - Twelve prominent Americans give their verdict Paul Auster Author I'm hard-pressed to think of a single thing the Bush administration has done to promote the arts. Joyce...

The browser: Council has rewritten the book on ludicrous acts

Published Date: 26 October 2008 Public libraries – as you'd expect, The Browser has an especial fondness for these oases of civilisation, erudition, tranquility and, er, state censorship. In an almost unbelievably crass...

Shorties (Haruki Murakami, Lily Allen, and more)

In the Wall Street Journal, Lionel Shriver criticizes the current literary fashion of not using quotation marks. The refusal to make a firm distinction between speech and interior reflection can also evoke a hermetic worldview....