Jerry Saltz

Jerry Saltz: Senior Art Critic; New York Magazine. 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. 2015 ASME Award for Criticism. 2019 ASME Award.

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Recommended by Jerry Saltz

@ThatEricAlper By far the best first line of any book is The Iliad. “Rage!” (from X)

The Iliad (Translated into verse by Alexander Pope with an Introduction and notes by Theodore Alois Buckley) book cover

by Homer, Alexander Pope, Theodore Alois Buckley·You?

Due to a lack of biographical evidence regarding the identity of Homer it has been suggested that the two great works attributed to him, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” may in fact be the work of multiple authors passed down through a long oral tradition. While scholarship on the subject will likely never definitely prove one way or the other, it is now generally accepted that these two great epic poems are the work of a single Greek author, Homer, who lived sometime during the 9th century BC. Set during a few weeks in the final year of the Trojan War, “The Iliad” is a classical epic poem concerning a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. While encompassing just a brief period of the Trojan War the poem relates events leading up to and following the few weeks that encompass the setting of the poem giving the reader a comprehensive perspective of the Trojan War. Part romanticized historical narrative, part mythological epic, the “Iliad” is widely recognized as one of the most important works from classical antiquity. Along with the “Odyssey,” it would establish Homer as one the most influential authors to ever have lived. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper, follows the verse translation of Alexander Pope, and includes an introduction and notes by Theodore Alois Buckley.

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Recommended by Jerry Saltz

With my brilliant God-Child Cyrus Grace Dunham and their brand new brilliantly written, radically vulnerable new book “A Year Without a Name”. Get it. Read it. https://t.co/piPgQByXXR (from X)

A "stunning" (Hanif Abdurraqib), "unputdownable" (Mary Karr) meditation on queerness, family, and desire. How do you know if you are transgender? How do you know if what you want and feel is real? How do you know whether to believe yourself? Cyrus Dunham’s life always felt like a series of imitations—lovable little girl, daughter, sister, young gay woman. But in a culture of relentless self-branding, and in a family subject to the intrusions and objectifications that attend fame, dissociation can come to feel normal. A Lambda Literary Award finalist, Dunham’s fearless, searching debut brings us inside the chrysalis of a transition inflected as much by whiteness and  proximity to wealth as by gender, asking us to bear witness to an uncertain and exhilarating process that troubles our most basic assumptions about identity. Written with disarming emotional intensity in a voice uniquely his, A Year Without a Name is a potent, thrillingly unresolved meditation on queerness, family, and selfhood. Named a Most Anticipated Book of the season by: Time NYLON Vogue ELLE Buzzfeed Bustle O Magazine Harper's Bazaar