Andrei Platonov: Russia's greatest 20th-century prose stylist?

 Posted on April 30, 2024  |  8 minutes  |  1619 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

FictionAn anti-Stalinist author who died in obscurity in 1951 may be the greatest Russian writer of the last century, his English translator Robert Chandler explains to Daniel KalderStalin called him scum. Sholokhov, Gorky, Pasternak, and Bulgakov all thought he was the bee's knees. But when Andrei Platonov died in poverty, misery and obscurity in 1951, no one would have predicted that within half a century he would be a contender for the title as Russia's greatest 20th-century prose stylist. [Read More]

Ask Alanis: my best friends now share my secrets with their spouses

 Posted on April 30, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  446 words  |  Christie Applegate

Ask Alanis MorissetteLife and stylePerhaps try finding someone else to confide in, until you feel safer with your friend’s partner I’ve got to that age when my best friends have become wives, fiancees and serious girlfriends, and suddenly my secrets are not so safe. My innermost thoughts and feelings are being shared with their partners, and it leaves me feeling vulnerable. I’ve been told that as someone who has never been in a serious relationship, it’s something I can’t understand. [Read More]

Does it matter if Mary Shelley was bisexual?

 Posted on April 30, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  677 words  |  Brenda Moya

Books blogMary ShelleyHer letters show that the author turned to women after her husband’s death. It’s an important insight into intimate history – and an inspiring example Mary Shelley is a queen. Daughter of modern feminism’s founder, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the radical thinker William Godwin, this rebellious woman wrote one of the earliest and most influential gothic horror novels: Frankenstein. Published in 1818, when Shelley was just 20 years old, it remains a work of genius that can still horrify readers with the depths of man’s depravity and pursuit of knowledge at all costs. [Read More]

From me to your inbox: 33 of the best Substack newsletters

 Posted on April 30, 2024  |  17 minutes  |  3478 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

The ObserverCultureThe fast-growing US writing platform has come of age, offering all kinds of newsletters from a range of writers and experts for a subscription or even free. But how do you find the good stuff? We pick some of the best by theme Substack – the American tech platform that enables anyone to create, publish, and (if they wish) get paid for a subscription newsletter – has belatedly become the New New Thing in mainstream media (MSM) discourse. [Read More]

My friends havent been there for me since my dads death

 Posted on April 30, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  818 words  |  Delta Gatti

Ask Annalisa BarbieriBereavementDeath is scary. It’s understandable that you expect more support from your friends, but you might need to be the one to start the conversation My dad died unexpectedly a few months ago and I can’t shift the resentment I feel towards some of my oldest friends, who have barely been in touch since it happened. I understand that death is a scary subject and that people might worry about saying the wrong thing. [Read More]

The House of Mirth: Jennifer Egan on Edith Whartons masterpiece

 Posted on April 30, 2024  |  9 minutes  |  1820 words  |  Delta Gatti

FictionSet in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, with a widening income gap comparable to our own, The House of Mirth is a relevant and electrifying classic for our times The House of Mirth was the first literary classic that I picked up entirely on my own, without prodding from a teacher or a parent, and adored. I read it as a teenager, during a stifling summer visit to my grandparents, when my literary tastes were unsophisticated (Archie comics were high on my list). [Read More]

A lost Ukraine: the photographs that show the calm before the carnage | Photography

 Posted on April 29, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1163 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

Poised … Turczan has chosen to present her images uncaptioned and her subjects unnamed. Photograph: Katherine TurczanPoised … Turczan has chosen to present her images uncaptioned and her subjects unnamed. Photograph: Katherine TurczanPhotographyInterviewA lost Ukraine: the photographs that show the calm before the carnageSean O’HaganKatherine Turczan grew up in the US listening to her family of Ukrainian exiles talk about home. In the 90s, she finally visited the country, taking gentle, bucolic pictures that now feel tragic [Read More]

Crowded House review a joyous and long-awaited return to Australia

 Posted on April 29, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  967 words  |  Christie Applegate

Liam Finn, Neil Finn and Nick Seymour of Crowded House, a band that continues to play with an unspoken, familial fluency – and a lot of love. Photograph: Aaron LeeLiam Finn, Neil Finn and Nick Seymour of Crowded House, a band that continues to play with an unspoken, familial fluency – and a lot of love. Photograph: Aaron LeePop and rockReviewAdelaide Entertainment Centre Over the last decade, Neil Finn joined Fleetwood Mac, his sons joined Crowded House, and they finally released a new album. [Read More]

Joseph Harmatz obituary | Holocaust

 Posted on April 29, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1122 words  |  Delta Gatti

HolocaustObituaryJoseph Harmatz obituaryWartime partisan who plotted revenge on the Nazis as part of the Jewish Avengers group Joseph Harmatz, who has died aged 91, lived two lives, one dedicated to killing, the other to giving life a purpose. He would probably have said that in both existences, his aim was the same: the first an attempt at a kind of revenge for the Holocaust, the second to make sure such a thing could never happen again. [Read More]

K Pattabhi Jois | India

 Posted on April 29, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  782 words  |  Brenda Moya

IndiaObituaryK Pattabhi JoisFounder of Ashtanga, one of the most popular forms of yogaSri K Pattabhi Jois, who has died aged 93, was the founder of Ashtanga yoga, the physically demanding, dynamic style of yoga embraced by millions of westerners. If ever proof were needed of the health benefits of yoga, Jois was it. Up every morning to start classes at 5am, he rarely missed a day's teaching in 70 years, instructing hundreds of students daily at his shala (school) in Mysore, southern India, until the last year of his life. [Read More]