Sam Sacks
@ssacks.bsky.social
Fiction critic at the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/news/author/sam-sacks); editor at Open Letters Review, formerly Open Letters Monthly (https://openlettersreview.com/) sam_sacks [at] hotmail
At On the Seawall, Cory Oldweiler writes an evocative introduction to the "Bergmanesque" postwar Swedish writer Birgitta Trotzig, who is getting the revival treatment from Archipelago Books in Saskia Vogel translations www.ronslate.com/on-queen-a-n...
January 16, 2026 at 3:03 PM
At On the Seawall, Cory Oldweiler writes an evocative introduction to the "Bergmanesque" postwar Swedish writer Birgitta Trotzig, who is getting the revival treatment from Archipelago Books in Saskia Vogel translations www.ronslate.com/on-queen-a-n...
Much fine lit-crit elsewhere on the internets. At the Hudson Review, Robert Archambeau has a fun, meaty piece on the kinships between Fitzgerald's Gatsby and Petronius's Trimalchio, the most "honest representation of an individual" in all of Roman literature. hudsonreview.com/2025/10/trim...
January 16, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Much fine lit-crit elsewhere on the internets. At the Hudson Review, Robert Archambeau has a fun, meaty piece on the kinships between Fitzgerald's Gatsby and Petronius's Trimalchio, the most "honest representation of an individual" in all of Roman literature. hudsonreview.com/2025/10/trim...
Podhoretz's literary journalism is a lot of fun, by the way--opinionated and rangy in that omnivorous postwar fashion
December 17, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Podhoretz's literary journalism is a lot of fun, by the way--opinionated and rangy in that omnivorous postwar fashion
Here's a brief thread of the fiction that has stayed with me most in 2025, a year in which I reviewed exactly 100 books, and was more grateful than ever for the chance to do so. First, these are screenshots of the three brilliant novels that made the WSJ Best Books list. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
December 17, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Here's a brief thread of the fiction that has stayed with me most in 2025, a year in which I reviewed exactly 100 books, and was more grateful than ever for the chance to do so. First, these are screenshots of the three brilliant novels that made the WSJ Best Books list. www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
A recent used bookshop find I couldn't pass up. Avon did this rounded corners thing for a few years in the '60s. An article at the time claims (maybe jokingly) that it was to prevent dog-earing. I've seen Henry Roth's 'Call It Sleep' in this version. Show me yours if you have one!
December 13, 2025 at 6:19 PM
A recent used bookshop find I couldn't pass up. Avon did this rounded corners thing for a few years in the '60s. An article at the time claims (maybe jokingly) that it was to prevent dog-earing. I've seen Henry Roth's 'Call It Sleep' in this version. Show me yours if you have one!
"Dickens is infinitely greater than his critics." True, but in this case the critic comes very close. Remembering John Carey's work this morning by rereading one of my favorite of his books.
December 13, 2025 at 6:07 PM
"Dickens is infinitely greater than his critics." True, but in this case the critic comes very close. Remembering John Carey's work this morning by rereading one of my favorite of his books.
It got a nice sturdy paperback edition too!
December 4, 2025 at 2:27 AM
It got a nice sturdy paperback edition too!
A great gift from a friend, this collects Broyard's deadline reviews for the New York Times between 1971-73. Authors known and unknown, all eloquently bantered over with energy and humor and pique. My favorite sort of book.
December 2, 2025 at 5:22 PM
A great gift from a friend, this collects Broyard's deadline reviews for the New York Times between 1971-73. Authors known and unknown, all eloquently bantered over with energy and humor and pique. My favorite sort of book.
Now happening in Central Park
November 8, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Now happening in Central Park
if you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it
November 8, 2025 at 6:32 PM
if you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it
It's been a James Schuyler day. The Manhattan sublime, from his Payne Whitney poems.
November 7, 2025 at 2:50 AM
It's been a James Schuyler day. The Manhattan sublime, from his Payne Whitney poems.
In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls Daniyal Mueenuddin's 'This is Where the Serpent Lives' a "masterpiece." And it's true, this will be one of the finest novels published in years. Out in January, put it on your radar! www.publishersweekly.com/9780525655152
November 6, 2025 at 2:57 PM
In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls Daniyal Mueenuddin's 'This is Where the Serpent Lives' a "masterpiece." And it's true, this will be one of the finest novels published in years. Out in January, put it on your radar! www.publishersweekly.com/9780525655152
My wife's relatives discovered a 1940 diary her grandfather wrote on parchment paper (he was a baker in Lille) during the German invasion of France. He recounts chauffeuring French officials, frantically fleeing Lille with his pregnant wife and three children and being taken prisoner.
October 30, 2025 at 4:09 PM
My wife's relatives discovered a 1940 diary her grandfather wrote on parchment paper (he was a baker in Lille) during the German invasion of France. He recounts chauffeuring French officials, frantically fleeing Lille with his pregnant wife and three children and being taken prisoner.
RIP to David Bellos, a great translator, teacher, scholar and popularizer. Here's a charming little essay about what he learned from his landmark translation of Georges Perec's 'Life: A User's Manual'. online.wsj.com/article/SB10...
October 27, 2025 at 4:38 PM
RIP to David Bellos, a great translator, teacher, scholar and popularizer. Here's a charming little essay about what he learned from his landmark translation of Georges Perec's 'Life: A User's Manual'. online.wsj.com/article/SB10...
Oh, you don't have the Cahiers Series chapbook of Krasznahorkai's 'Animalinside'? That's cool I guess, though it's kinda the skeleton key to the author's whole chthonic oeuvre.
October 9, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Oh, you don't have the Cahiers Series chapbook of Krasznahorkai's 'Animalinside'? That's cool I guess, though it's kinda the skeleton key to the author's whole chthonic oeuvre.
(And here are the mass markets)
October 8, 2025 at 4:50 PM
(And here are the mass markets)
I bought a new bookshelf--some kind of end-of-supply sale at the Container Store--and have finally made a little library of my literary criticism. I don't think any other kind of book has given me as much uncomplicated pleasure. (The Beckett is just a stopgap bookend, it will go elsewhere.)
October 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I bought a new bookshelf--some kind of end-of-supply sale at the Container Store--and have finally made a little library of my literary criticism. I don't think any other kind of book has given me as much uncomplicated pleasure. (The Beckett is just a stopgap bookend, it will go elsewhere.)
I currently have the best view in New York, on the staging area for the African American Day parade
September 21, 2025 at 3:52 PM
I currently have the best view in New York, on the staging area for the African American Day parade
This sign in Central Park about adult cicada killer wasps is raising a lot of questions already answered by the sign
September 9, 2025 at 5:35 PM
This sign in Central Park about adult cicada killer wasps is raising a lot of questions already answered by the sign
Just got a great gift from a Japanese friend—sake in a juice box
August 21, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Just got a great gift from a Japanese friend—sake in a juice box
"This was a woman who used the written word the way a highway patrolman uses his cruiser: as a work tool, instrument of power and control, weapon, badge of office, carapace, and home on wheels." Beth Gutcheon on the strengths and eccentricities of Edna Ferber. hudsonreview.com/2025/08/the-...
August 14, 2025 at 3:05 PM
"This was a woman who used the written word the way a highway patrolman uses his cruiser: as a work tool, instrument of power and control, weapon, badge of office, carapace, and home on wheels." Beth Gutcheon on the strengths and eccentricities of Edna Ferber. hudsonreview.com/2025/08/the-...
The most photogenic of today's unnecessary bookstore purchases
August 12, 2025 at 8:45 PM
The most photogenic of today's unnecessary bookstore purchases
And something I got just this summer, from Massolit Bookstore in Budapest. Frank O'Connor's two cents in an 'Appreciation' series that Ireland's Metropolitan Publishing put out in the 1940s. Always love when these things wind up on the other side of Europe--and it has now found a home in New York.
August 11, 2025 at 6:27 PM
And something I got just this summer, from Massolit Bookstore in Budapest. Frank O'Connor's two cents in an 'Appreciation' series that Ireland's Metropolitan Publishing put out in the 1940s. Always love when these things wind up on the other side of Europe--and it has now found a home in New York.
This seems to be the last remaining book memento from my university semester in Sevilla, bought from one of the many bookshops tucked away in the winding streets of the Barrio de Santa Cruz. My Spanish is good enough for Vallejo's dark & biting early poems; maybe not for the later surrealist stuff.
August 11, 2025 at 6:17 PM
This seems to be the last remaining book memento from my university semester in Sevilla, bought from one of the many bookshops tucked away in the winding streets of the Barrio de Santa Cruz. My Spanish is good enough for Vallejo's dark & biting early poems; maybe not for the later surrealist stuff.
This is from Richard Booth's Bookshop in the actual Hay-on-Wye. A cherished addition to my Arthur Waley collection. Here he translates, in his exceedingly free manner, a selection of verse from lesser known Chinese poets across the dynasties.
August 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
This is from Richard Booth's Bookshop in the actual Hay-on-Wye. A cherished addition to my Arthur Waley collection. Here he translates, in his exceedingly free manner, a selection of verse from lesser known Chinese poets across the dynasties.