A Commonplace Blog

Dear All, This is Cynthia, I am David's sister in law and Naomi's sister. I am so sorry to tell you that David passed away Friday e...

A transcript of my remarks at Congregation Torat Emet in Bexley, Ohio, on July 17. 2014. I never wanted to be known for having a fatal dis...

Note: Last night my synagogue, Congregation Torat Emet in Bexley, Ohio, held a tribute in my honor. Several friends spoke, and several more ...

New York Post critic Kyle Smith’s series over at PJ Media on the best films of the decades has been entertaining to follow, especially whe...

Cross-posted from Elder of Ziyon We unequivocally condemn the horrific murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. It was unjustifiable under any circu...

My third Good Letters post for the Image Journal is up this morning. It is a reflection on living with terminal cancer, as I have for the ...

My first post for the Image Journal ’s Good Letters blog, which I have joined as a regular contributor, is up this morning. It is an attack...

My seven-year-old son Isaac was listening to Gil Roth’s interview with me on the Virtual Memories Show . “He will be dead from prostate can...

In English-language prose fiction, that is. Here without much further ado or explanation is the list of the twenty-five greatest literary de...

You might say that my bibliography of ’sixties fiction has been a lifetime in the making. The first hardback book that I ever bought with m...

Among the distempers of learning in our day is the habit of reading canonical fiction as if it were the only fiction in existence. In the re...

A season into my sixth year of living with Stage IV metastatic prostate cancer, I am finally writing a book on the experience. Or, rather, w...

Will Wilkinson laments the decline of “old school blogging,” the original style of blogging—before the media outlets launched their group b...

A few days ago, the economist Thomas Sowell found himself obligated to write an op-ed column in which he pointed out that “trickle-down eco...

Tomorrow I will step into a classroom to begin the last semester of a 24-year teaching career. Don’t get me wrong. I am not retiring. I am n...

Victor Brombert, Musings on Mortality: From Tolstoy to Primo Levi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013). 188 pages. Victor Bromber...

Sunday was the fifth anniversary of this Commonplace Blog . My very first post, appropriately enough given my sworn allegiance to him, was a...