Things I Don’t Want to Know is a unique response to George Orwell from one of our most vital contemporary writers. Taking Orwell’s famous list of motives for writing as the jumping-off point for a sequence of thrilling reflections on the writing life, this is a perfect companion not just to Orwell’s essay, but also to Levy’s own, essential oeuvre.
Endlessly surprising and entertaining, Humiliation is an essay-in-fragments unlike any other you will read on the human condition. With a disarming blend of personal reflection and cultural commentary, Wayne Koestenbaum walks us – at times cajoles us – through a spectrum of mortifications, in history, current events, literature, art, music, film, and in his own life. The book’s timing, the New York Times tells us, “is flawless.”
At once a travel narrative, an allegorical journey, a withering comment on State-Building, a humanist philosophy of life, a preparation for death and a prophecy of resurrection (both for Armenia and for himself). This edition also includes the companion-piece, ‘Conversation about Dante’.
