So long as the Booker Prize keeps longlisting 13 titles, I'm going to keep making that joke. The Booker season is underway with the unveiling of 2008's longlist.

Film critics have lauded the French thriller Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One) with adjectives fit for a personal ad: "taut," "sexy," "smart..." Having recently caught a matinee, I'm willing to attest to its tautness. However, the climax reminded...

It seems fitting to begin a reflection on the late David Foster Wallace in a fit of anxiety about reception - about the propensity of words, sentences, personae, to falsify or to be misunderstood. For example: I know this seems fraudulent an...