Arts & Culture
The monster stories we need
Two very different Frankenstein movies share a central concern: If humans unleash monstrousness on the world, who are we to judge when our monsters turn against us?
The brutal ax of capitalism
In No Other Choice, the unemployed anti-hero turns to a life of crime to solve his economic woes. He’s not the only one.
A 17th-century Dear Abby
Mary Beth Norton steers between the timeless and the time-lost in this all-too-slim book about the world’s first advice column.
Buried secrets
In Susan Gregg Gilmore’s new southern parable, 12-year-old Leonard buries his neighbors’ regrets alongside his own amputated leg.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s pursuit of freedom in relationship
One Battle After Another makes no argument for the “right” sort of revolutionary action. It’s more concerned with the relationships between parents and children.
Deconstructing the Catholic imagination
Rebecca Bratten Weiss finds treasures in the ruins of Christian literary classics. But first, the idols need to be smashed.