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In the rearview mirror, Gemma sees her husband’s face hued gray by his phone. He’s checking where sempre dritto leads on Google Maps, scanning the next few minutes of their lives for junctions. That wanting to know had often inspired and even aroused her. But his wanting to know had lately tipped o…

Gemma doesn’t note the wariness in his voice, because her own words are repeating in her head: “since we moved” as opposed to “moved back.” Which would have made it sound like she and Des had been an item in Ireland originally. But they hadn’t been. They don’t actually know how to be in their count…

In fact, another maxim I have offered myself at certain moments is that ideological critique has to end up being a critique of the self. You can’t recognize an ideology unless, in some sense, you see it in yourself. Making critiques from the outside is like reading books you don’t like because you …

I have gone through my own practice and tried to identify the things I tend to do. The first is recurrences. I’m sort of an auteur critic in the sense that if I find a writer interesting, I try to read all their work. I do the same thing with musicians and painters. And when you do that, what you b…