More in ‘satire’

After dragging you through the hell of writing a memoir this past year, I thought I’d spend the next year dragging you through the hell of writing a novel, an undertaking of which Flannery O’Connor had this to say: “Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the ...

Movie poster for Cast a Giant Shadow
In 1964 Melville Shavelson set out to make a Hollywood epic about an American military man who helped establish the state of Israel. Though Cast a Giant Shadow had a generous budget, the full cooperation of the Israeli government, and a star-studded cast including Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Frank ...

A year and three months after our son Lev was born, my wife and I could no longer repress what we’d been feeling all along. He’s a beautiful child, that’s true, and far from being an idiot, but the minute we manage to step back from our subjective proud parent status and take an objective ...

I’ve been giving a shit lately. I’m not sure why.
I tried that Airborne stuff, but it’s not helping. Pot makes it worse, and booze just adds self-loathing and a headache to the equation. One evening, over dinner, I told my wife.
“I…” I said.
She looked at me, worried.
“What is it?” she asked.
I took a deep breath. ...

Amidst the hubbub over the snubbing of supposed sure thing Dreamgirls in the best picture category, Oscar devotees may not have noticed another, lower-profile musical that did garner a nod for best picture, albeit best short picture: Ari Sandel’s West Bank Story, a musical comedy set against the backdrop of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Imagine a ...

The bad news is I’ve had a good month. As the child of an ever-suffering mother and a member of an ever-suffering people, I am not merely uncomfortable with happiness, I am tortured by it. The worst thing that can happen to me is the best thing that can happen to me, and the best ...

“Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, where savage indignation can no longer lacerate his heart.” This epigraph, written by the great satirist for his tombstone, is a reminder that the live wire of outrage snaked through his best, most entertaining, work. Perhaps the lack of this sort of animating passion is one reason why ...

The fourth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s HBO comedy series, is over, but people are still talking about its second-to-last episode, “The Survivor,” which upends traditional views of everything from adultery to the afterlife. The episode’s centerpiece is a dinner party celebrating the renewal of Larry and Cheryl’s wedding vows. Colby Donaldson, one ...