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White Man for the Job

Jeremy Clarkson gets out the Farrow & Ball. Sort of …

Opera Pick of the Week

The certain something in this pandemic Don Giovanni from Prague is the unique aura of the theater in which it was filmed

Inside Afghanistan

At the core of the current Afghanistan disaster is the West’s misunderstanding of a country and its people. These books offer a good place to start

The Art of Subtlety

To attract readers but stump libel lawyers, 20th-century magazine writers alluded to sordid gossip instead of printing it

Family Feuds

The story of famed U.K. department store John Lewis rivals that of the Murdoch clan in its similarities with Succession

Joan of Art

Joan Mitchell, who revolutionized postwar American art alongside “Ninth Street women” Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning, finally gets her due

The Bright Side of Life

A swarm of musicals open in London’s West End, proving that both the fun and the show must go on

Great Marketing Minds of 2021

Lest you think the cinema is intellectually bankrupt, Hollywood welcomes you to the Year of the Intense Middle-Aged Bearded White Guy in a Baseball Cap!

So Long, Summer

Whether you’re over the season or clinging on for dear life, tracks from the likes of Willie Nelson, the Kinks, and Rosemary Clooney will serve you well

Queens of Hearts

Family Business

To write his second novel, Atticus Lish asked himself, “What hurts?”

Lost in Translation

The moment Japan opened its doors to the West, in the late 1800s, was the moment many of its traditions disappeared. A new volume brings them back

Kate Moennig

The actress’s pandemic podcast with The L Word co-star Leisha Hailey has become the new gay go-to

What It Was Like to Date John F. Kennedy

Sixty years after her affair with the president ended, a woman looks back

Sharon Horgan Goes Viral

Shot over 10 days, her new film is a raw look at lockdown’s effect on one family

The Itch Putin Can’t Scratch

Barry Blitt’s Sketchbook

A Hello to Arms

Ernest Hemingway: renowned novelist, bullfighting aficionado, and … Spanish guerrilla fighter?

Peter Kuper’s Sketchbook

Opera Pick of the Week

Yuval Sharon’s Twilight: Gods crunches Richard Wagner’s four-night “Ring” cycle into a 60-minute crawl through a parking garage

If It Ain’t Woke, Fix It

Short List

What to read this week, from a history of a secret Nixon meeting to an exploration of French colonialism in Congo and a look back at Bernini’s Rome

The Voice of Doom

Alive and Well

If you’ve missed going to concerts as much as we have, this collection of live tracks will get you excited for all the shows ahead