I think criticism in recent years has been apt to talk a bit too much about the privilege of individual authors & too little about general material conditions and how they influence the fiction of a given period. I was very glad to try to address that by writing this.

For @nybooks.com, I wrote about the death of the suburban novel but really about what I think makes a lot of today's fiction unsatisfying: "it’s awkward to write novels about middle-class problems in a society that is no longer even nominally middle-class.” www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

@adellewaldman.bsky.social: “For millions of American low-wage workers today, the problem is not overwork—it’s underwork.“ theatln.tc/2HzqtiwI

Writing an introduction to the new Vintage edition of Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey” was one of the most fun assignments I’ve ever had. I’m delighted that The New Yorker reprinted it.

I don't know about others (?), but I’ve never been able to listen to the audio versions of my books—too cringe-y to hear my own words. But I've been told that the reader of "Help Wanted" is terrific, & so I'm especially happy to see this: open.spotify.com/playlist/37i... cc @wwnorton.bsky.social