Allen Barra

What should I read next? What should I read next?

Aleksandar Hemon's fictional alter ego drinks and writes his way through exile in these superb coming-of-age tales.
By Allen Barra Jun 4, 2009

  • The dirt on A-Rod

    A controversial new biography collects just about every rumor and bad story ever told about baseball icon Alex Rodriguez. But who leaked his drug tests, and what do they mean, anyway?
    By Allen Barra May 8, 2009

  • The genius of Yogi Berra

    Biographer Allen Barra talks about his new book, in which the lovable, quotable old catcher comes off as intelligent, shrewd and decent.
    By King Kaufman March 25, 2009

  • A Southern Gothic legend is hard to find

    Flannery O'Connor wrote two novels and died young, but her influence has been vast. Why has it taken half a century for her to get a definitive biography?
    By Allen Barra March 3, 2009

  • Secrets and lives

    Sebastian Barry may be the most exhilarating prose stylist in Irish fiction. His new book weaves together strands from Ireland's past -- and his own.
    By Allen Barra June 20, 2008

  • Irène Némirovsky's life after death

    "Suite Française" made her a posthumous literary sensation. But newly published work raises the question: Was Némirovsky a Jewish anti-Semite?
    By Allen Barra February 6, 2008

  • Misbegotten "Moon"

    Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" may have been the best TV western ever made. Can his new CBS miniseries "Comanche Moon" shine as bright?
    By Allen Barra January 11, 2008

  • How the West was lost

    In a movie season crowded with westerns, "True Grit" -- the great, unsung novel of the American frontier -- celebrates its 40th anniversary.
    By Allen Barra November 27, 2007

  • Nixon knows best

    Richard Nixon continues to fascinate and repel us. On the 35th anniversary of Watergate, is it time to stop kicking Dick around and reconsider his accomplishments?
    By Allen Barra June 15, 2007

  • The greatest living critic

    If a team of scientists crossed the DNA of Edmund Wilson with Pauline Kael, and added a dash of Wilfrid Sheed, they would come up with Clive James.
    By Allen Barra April 9, 2007

  • "Travels in the Scriptorium"

    When Paul Auster is at his best he's like a brilliant magician. When he's not -- as with his latest -- it's as if he's sawing away without a woman in the box.
    By Allen Barra February 7, 2007

  • Too much Gore

    Vidal's second memoir merely retells the stories we already know from his enormous -- and potentially irrelevant -- body of work.
    By Allen Barra January 3, 2007

  • Bond, by the book

    With the release of "Casino Royale," I read Ian Fleming's classic Bond novels again and discovered a talented spy who was "just like us" and a writer devoted to pleasure.
    By Allen Barra November 25, 2006

  • "The Return of the Player"

    In Michael Tolkin's follow-up to "The Player," Griffin Mill leaves the movie business behind -- but he's still out for blood.
    By Allen Barra October 26, 2006

  • One fumbles, one scores

    Two ambitious high school football dramas, "Two-A-Days" and "Friday Night Lights," hit the small screen this season.
    By Allen Barra October 3, 2006

  • Nelson Algren's New Orleans

    The 1956 classic "A Walk on the Wild Side" captured the Crescent City as we'll never see it again -- seedy, brutal, alive.
    By Allen Barra September 7, 2006

  • In too deep

    Douglas Brinkley's epic account of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath stops short of laying blame where it belongs: On President Bush.
    By Allen Barra June 27, 2006

  • Destination: Venice

    Get to the city of canals before it disappears -- and don't forget to grab Calvino, James and, of course, Thomas Mann.
    By Allen Barra June 26, 2006

  • The new true West

    From Larry McMurtry and Thomas Berger to "Deadwood" and the gay cowboys of "Brokeback Mountain," the American West is alive and wilder than ever.
    By Allen Barra June 12, 2006

  • White's albums

    Rejecting Freudian analysis and embracing his true identity, Edmund White penned two landmarks of gay literature and redefined the autobiographical novel.
    By Allen Barra April 26, 2006

  • Who was John Fante?

    The Italian American author of "Ask the Dust" was the quintessential L.A. writer, a big brother to the Beats and the voice of immigrant America.
    By Allen Barra March 10, 2006

  • Reading "Lolita" in Alabama

    Fifty years after its publication, and 20 after my first reading, Nabokov's masterpiece is still dangerous -- but not for the reasons you might think.
    By Allen Barra December 22, 2005

  • "The Warriors" fights on

    Twenty-six years after being shunned by the mainstream, the cult classic rises again (and again, and again).
    By Allen Barra November 28, 2005

  • Love in the time of viagra

    Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcma Marquez's new book follows an aging man who seeks out illicit sex -- but finds something else.
    By Allen Barra November 9, 2005

  • The man who knew too much

    Edmund Wilson had four wives, dozens of affairs, a drinking problem -- and the sharpest critical mind of his generation.
    By Allen Barra October 4, 2005
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