Meghan O’Rourke Archive
The Lyricism of Mundane Grief in Joy Enough and The Long Goodbye
Death’s lyricism, perhaps, can only be found after the fact, when one tries to prettify the tedium and make sense of inner chaos.
Imagination and Repetition in Chronic Illness Memoir
The aesthetic project of chronic illness memoir is inescapably tied to its political project. Within the wider genre, we might discern a politics of repetition.
A Lot of Sorrow, A Lot of Faith
I round a dark alcove in the Reykjavík Art Museum to find twenty or so people gathered in a space the size of a hip basement venue. Before them is a screen on which The National plays.
On Intimacy: Elena Ferrante & Stacey D’Erasmo
It seems as though people do not want to believe that fiction can be intimate—that is: detailed, personal, private, sacred, something with which readers feel closely acquainted or familiar. It is especially surprising if it is also broad, and that one book can accomplish both apparently astounds reviewers.