A compilation of some of the best of the Los Angeles Review of Books' first six months. Authors include Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Tolkin, Mark McGurl, and Jane Smiley.
Matthew Specktor — Mr. Sublimation A review of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom.
Sven Birkerts — The Room and the Elephant On the culture of intellectual debate online.
Michael Tolkin — One Inch Above the Ground A review of Louis Auchincloss' A Voice from Old New York.
Barbara Ehrenreich — Man Is Not Cat Food On the morality — and lack thereof — of humans and animals.
Mark McGurl — The MFA Octopus: Four Questions About Creative Writing A response to Elif Batuman's review of The Program Era in the London Review of Books.
Jane Smiley — The Other Nancy Mitford On a great neglected modern novelist.
Chris Kraus — Posthumous On a new biography of Simone Weil.
Ben Lerner — Where The Action Was On Abstract Expressionist New York, as seen from Kansas and California.
