{"product_id":"9781590177136","title":"Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003eFINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD \u003cbr\u003eAND THE PEN ART OF THE ESSAY AWARD\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn’s reviews for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e have earned him a reputation as “one of the greatest critics of our time” (\u003ci\u003ePoets \u0026amp; Writers\u003c\/i\u003e). In \u003ci\u003eWaiting for the Barbarians\u003c\/i\u003e, he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays—each one glinting with “verve and sparkle,” “acumen and passion”—on a wide range of subjects, from \u003ci\u003eAvatar\u003c\/i\u003e to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with the \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e to Susan Sontag’s \u003ci\u003eJournals\u003c\/i\u003e. Trained as a classicist, author of two internationally best-selling memoirs, Mendelsohn moves easily from penetrating considerations of the ways in which the classics continue to make themselves felt in contemporary life and letters (Greek myth in the \u003ci\u003eSpider-Man\u003c\/i\u003e musical, Anne Carson’s translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles—none more explosively controversial than his dissection of \u003ci\u003eMad Men\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlso gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell’s Holocaust blockbuster \u003ci\u003eThe Kindly Ones\u003c\/i\u003e to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, “Private Lives,” prefaced by Mendelsohn’s \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noël Coward, and Jonathan Franzen. \u003ci\u003eWaiting for the Barbarians\u003c\/i\u003e once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn’s “sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47054125367536,"sku":"9781590177136","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781590177136_p0.jpg?v=1763806739","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781590177136","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}