Hermann Hesse’s short novel carries so much weight — What is a good book to buy for a high school graduate? A friend asked me this recently. I don’t like giving book recommendations, but I wanted to help my friend. I suggested Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.* Not long after I graduated high school, 20 years ago, someone gifted me…

I walk into a gelato shop. I wait in line. At the register, the guy behind the counter seems agitated. He speaks to his colleagues in a strained voice and repeats himself several times. He says he rang up the previous customer correctly. He says it’s not his fault if…

Women say “sorry” all the time for no good reason. We apologize for simply existing in the world. It’s a thing. And it’s complicated. But this past weekend, I saw a woman apologize for, of all things, the weather. The weather in Brooklyn was weird on Saturday. Hail the size…

If I never felt anxious, would I be able to feel anything at all? — There’s a woman on a stage. It’s a small stage, and the woman belongs on the stage. She is meant to stand there, to speak the words she has prepared for this event. People are gathered in front of her, seated. She is meant to address them, and that’s what…

Fiction and Non-Fiction — 1am. There was so much pressure on her. Do what they expect. Be predictable. Remember the past [taptap] forecast. Why couldn’t she remember what she wanted to say? In the green room, grass between her teeth, she sent a text message: drizzlerblizzyfreezberze. She didn’t expect a response. She wanted to…

Fiction and Non-Fiction — Some people might wonder if you were in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Unlucky. Others will blame you for not being fast enough. You saw the metal leg descending toward you. You, on the ground. The leg, in the air. Did you think to run away? Did you…

George Clooney, Michael Fassbender, Rooney Mara, Adam Sandler, and Kristen Stewart — How do you choose which movie you are going to watch? I returned to the cinema a few weeks ago, for the first time since early 2020, at the invitation of a friend. She wanted to see anything “except Jackass and maybe Licorice Pizza.” …

The answer is (almost) always the same — The other day, while waiting for the F train, my partner noticed two small children standing eerily close to the platform edge. He asked me, “Why are those kids alone?” (My partner has lived in NYC since 1992. Isn’t it amazing that he can still be surprised by something like…

Readers of George Eliot’s novel ‘Middlemarch’ believe in a character named Dorothea Brooke — There are certain characters in literature who inspire readers. A person, though fictional, can embody the characteristics we value most. Someone brave, perhaps. Someone who overcomes. …