On the eve of the world cup, eleven writers—including Karl Ove Knausgaard, Geoff Dyer, Joseph O’Neill—pick the most compelling characters of the tournament. O’Neill chooses Netherlands star Arjen Robben: “Aged 30, he is a ringer for Patrick Stewart, who is 73. Like Stewart, Robben is chronically histrionic, only his is a limited villainous repertoire of dives, false grimaces, and mock seizures. Even his brilliance gets under the skin.”
A limited-edition book featuring the five “Talk of the Town” pieces Lillian Ross wrote about Francois Truffaut between the years 1960 and 1976 is being published.
Chris Lehmann looks at neoliberal pundits’ reaction to Thomas Piketty’s study of inequality Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and explains why their counterclaims ring false, arguing that “the wifty personal education-and-innovation agendas that David Brooks and company champion are false solutions to the inequality crisis.”
At VanityFair, Evgenia Peretz presents some disapproving quotes about Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch from the likes of James Wood, Lorin Stein, and Francine Prose, which prompt a discussion of what makes capital-S “serious” literature.
The Awl has posted a very interesting, thorough, and topsy-turvy history of Time Inc’s Entertainment Weekly by Anna Helen Petersen, the author of the forthcoming Scandals of Classic Hollywood.