You are currently browsing Art & Life.

Kesey’s ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ Still Flying At 50

Fifty years ago — on Feb. 1, 1962 — a first novel appeared that would make its author a literary celebrity, inspire a movie that won the Best Picture Oscar, and help change the way we think about mental-health institutions. There’s no question that Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has become an [...]

S’il-Vous-Plait: Raising Your ‘Bebe’ The French Way

When her first child was born, Pamela Druckerman expected to spend the next several years frantically meeting her daughter’s demands. In the U.S., after all, mealtimes, living rooms, and sleep schedules typically turn to chaos as soon as a baby arrives. That’s the reason one friend of mine used to refer to his child as [...]

Baratunde Thurston Explains ‘How To Be Black’

It’s no coincidence that Baratunde Thurston’s new memoir and satirical self-help book How to Be Black was slated for release on the first day of Black History Month. “I feel great about that,” Thurston tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “I think we have a moment every year in our country where everyone buys black stamps [...]

‘Monstress’: The Beautiful And The Damned

The first story in Lysley Tenorio’s debut collection begins in the seats at the Primero theater in Manila, where “they use a bedsheet for a screen.” The last opens in Lemoore, Calif., a suburban town named phonetically for love. Taken together, this is the unique territory in which Tenorio sets his stories, where Filipino traditions [...]

Tina Brown’s Must-Reads: Dictators

Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, tells us what she’s been reading in a feature that Morning Edition likes to call “Word of Mouth.” This week, Brown selects three pieces of writing that relate to the lives of dictators — and those living, in one form or another, in totalitarian states. A [...]

Super Bowl, Hoosier Style

To call Indiana “white bread” might seem like a put-down, until you consider two words: Wonder Bread. The soft, squishy symbol of bland Americana was created in 1921 by Taggart Baking Co. of Indianapolis. And for nearly 100 years, Indiana has stayed true to the image of its most culturally influential product. Indianans are 84 [...]

Share Your Photos: The People And Places You Love

In February, the young readers in NPR’s Backseat Book Club will read Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai. In the book, a boy named Fadi finds his voice — and the chance to find his lost little sister — through photography. Since Shooting Kabul is all about places, people and photographs, we’d like to see your [...]

No More E-Books Vs. Print Books Arguments, OK?

Jonathan Franzen’s in the news again, this time talking about how e-books are chiseling away at the foundations of civilization as we know it. Absurd, isn’t it? That the author of two of the better regarded novels of the past decade (give or take) would be concerned about how you read his books. The problem, [...]