Diary

Memoirs by Men, or why bother?
Of course, not. What editor worth his salt would choose to group reviews of memoirs written by men under that title? No one. But Memoirs by Women, now

Back to School
I’m not going back to school in the way that “back to school” meant as a child (new shoes, new teachers), or as an adult who, after experimenting

Three Shades of Black
Summer Black, of course. No New Yorker needs persuading about wearing black in the summer―is there any other color?―but apparently London women need help, or at least encouragement

Twitter and Trolls
The FEMEN movement has warned London and Britain that an offensive on the city is in the works. Inna Shevchenko whose face inspired a new image for Marianne,

“New-Wave Feminists,” starring Jane Austen
I’ve long been enamored of new-wave movies since they changed my life, and so it was a treat to see feminists referred to as “new wavers” in a

DOES She Forgive Him? Or How CAN She Forgive Him?
There I was all set to report on the doings around the Royal Baby, when an item about Anthony Weiner popped up as the head column in the

Can we forgive them? Jews in the news.
Back in New York for a few days, and reading the Times (on paper, of course), I’m reminded how publicly Jewish a city New York is―compared, say, to

Plus ça change, or are women people?
“Murray ends the 77-year wait for British win.” Ooops. The headline misses the fact that Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977. But she won in women’s singles. Feminist

Welcome. Some musings on my current preoccupations with the worlds of illness and the worlds of books, the vicissitudes of living with cancer and the need now, in my eighties, to imagine what new writing might be.