Notes to John by Joan Didion: The posthumous publication of the writer’s psychiatry sessions feels exploitative
If the great essayist had wanted this published she probably would have done it herself
Joan Didion
Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik: It’s almost unfair for a biography to be such fun
This is less a sequel to the author’s Hollywood’s Eve than a retelling, with Didion now cast as the lead
Fintan O’Toole on his career: ‘You had to learn to live with the fact that some people despised you’
The Irish Times columnist has made a new documentary about his life for RTÉ. Here he looks back on a career that he began as the Michelangelo of Tipp-Ex
The last of the Dunnes: ‘Someone in a bar said, You are like the Kennedys. That really offended me’
Actor Griffin Dunne on his Irish-American family, including his father Dominick Dunne and sister Dominique, who was murdered as a young woman
Lorde: ‘I’m only just scratching the surface of my powers’
The New Zealand singer on her new album, giving up social media and dealing with grief
Michael Stipe: ‘Cold-ass b**ch was a coat I put on to protect myself. I can take it off now’
The artist and REM singer talks American presidents, parties and photographing his heroes
The Hard Crowd: Everything is turning to gold
Book review: Enthralling collection of essays from the acclaimed novelist Rachel Kushner
John Clarke on missing his wife Marian Finucane: ‘I didn’t realise how much we chatted’
He recalls her odd attitude to doctors, their ‘crazy’ love and their late daughter
Orla Tinsley: Returning to Covid-19 Ireland after my lung transplant
The writer and cystic fibrosis campaigner spent six years in New York where she had an operation
Mick Harvey: On My Culture Radar
Musician on the American author Joan Didion and Alice Coltrane’ ashram music
Can you channel Jack Kerouac in an electric car?
Henry Mance plugged in, turned on and hit Route 80 to find out. Spontaneity and distance were the first casualties
The Paper Wasp review: Obsessive female friendship turned sour
Lauren Acampora’s debut novel, set in the Holywood bubble, is gripping and nuanced
Netflix: the 10 best new films and shows to watch in May
Renee Zellweger stars in What/If; Knock Down the House looks at the rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Neck trouble, philosophy and defiance: A literary guide to middle age
Our middle years have had a makeover thanks to some excellent recent literature
Maureen Dowd: We are in a war over what kind of America we want
Trump’s genius for hate and division has driven us into a canyon that won’t be easy to exit
Policing the borderlands of fiction and non-fiction
For serious writers, invention in reportage remains taboo
Feast Days by Ian MacKenzie review: A truly convincing female voice
The astute, captivating story of expat life of an American woman in Brazil
100 books by women you have to read
Iris Murdoch, Edna O’Brien, Marian Keyes and Eimear McBride all appear on the list
Fintan O’Toole: Abortion issue creates and sustains tribal politics
In 1983, the conservative Catholic John Healy could also be a staunch opponent of the Eighth Amendment
‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ author Tom Wolfe dies aged 88
Writer dies in Manhattan hospital after infection, his agent Lynn Nesbit confirms
Metaphors of power: Infrastructure, cultural identity and the Irish State
Opening next week, Limerick’s 38th EVA International takes as its starting point the nation-building construction of the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric power station
Tolstoy, TS Eliot and CS Lewis: the writers inspired by Easter
As well as the religious symbolism of Easter the idea of becoming new is very potent
I found my voice through other women’s voices
The power of books written by women about women can never be underestimated
The TV theme songs that make you drool with pleasure
Patrick Freyne: The secret to a great ever-lasting memorable show is a catchy, sing-along intro
Donald Clarke: Get over Charles Manson and get over the 1960s
The continuing adoration of the popular culture of the 1960s is exhausting and inhibiting
Ingrid Goes West review: Single white troll seeks new VBF
No need to condemn social media ‘influencers’ – this film will do the hating for you
Hashtag hysterical: ‘Single White Female’ meets Instagram in sadcom movie
‘Ingrid Goes West’ director says he is drawn to comedy that comes from a place of pain
‘My America has changed in the last 12 months’
There are those who say, love it or leave. But it is not that simple. I still have hope
John Ashbery, giant of modern American poetry, dies aged 90
Pulitzer Prize winner was credited with changing ‘how we read poetry’
‘The female experience is not really something I can identify with’
Sarah Perry discusses faith, writing, gender and illness as more than a metaphor
So what’s hot and what’s not this week?
Big coats will keep you toasty, but cost of Christmas puts a chill down the spine
Dallas shootings: Is the US starting to unravel?
There are echoes and recurrences linking this difficult moment to the American berserk of two generations back
Una Mullally on ... that day last May
“There are moments of togetherness that words cannot do justice.”
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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