Books & Fiction: The Early Diaries of Patricia Highsmith

Plus: Gayl Jones’s novels of oppression; David Sedaris’s diary of 2016; and Donald Antrim reads Donald Barthelme on the Fiction Podcast. View in browser | Update your preferences Life and Letters A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Woman The author’s diaries and notebooks chart her early work and love life. By Patricia Highsmith A Critic at Large Gayl Jones’s Novels of Oppression In the author’s work, colonization and racial hatred turn mother against child, Black against white, man against woman. By Hilton Als Personal History What if You’d Known We Were All So Crazy? A diary of 2016—the year of Trump, Brexit, and Carol the fox. By David Sedaris Books We’re Shaped by Our Sexual Desires. Can We Shape Them? What we want may be more socially conditioned than we realize. By Alexandra Schwartz Books Briefly Noted “Bewilderment,” “Something New Under the Sun,” “Against White Feminism,” and “Burning Man.” Fiction Podcast Fiction Podcast Donald Antrim Reads Donald Barthelme The author joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “The Balloon,” by Donald Barthelme, which was published in a 1966 issue of the magazine. Poetry Poems “Entire” “There was dirt once, an entire earth / That clung to our bare feet when it rained.” By José Antonio Rodríguez Poems “To Gather Together” “It is not yet after the pandemic / but most of us have bared our faces / in public.” By Erika Meitner On This Day Books The Thrilling Mind of Wallace Stevens The American poet, who was born on this day in 1879, invested slight subjects (the weather, often) with oracular gravitas, and grand ones (death, frequently) with capering humor. By Peter Schjeldahl More from The New Yorker American Chronicles When Black History Is Unearthed, Who Gets to Speak for the Dead? Efforts to rescue African American burial grounds and remains have exposed deep conflicts over inheritance and representation. By Jill Lepore Kitchen Notes A Jamaican Chef’s Journey Home Norma Shirley immigrated to the U.S. and tried to make it as a restaurateur. Then she became an icon by cooking for her own people. By Mayukh Sen You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for Books & Fiction from The New Yorker. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up. Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our Privacy Policy Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.