Lit Hub Weekly: October 20 - 24, 2025

• Steven J. Zipperstein explores the biographical underpinnings of Philip Roth’s iconic work of Jewish-American fiction, Portnoy’s Complaint. | Lit Hub Criticism
• What the fascist tech bros get wrong about Prometheus. (And yes, they do want to build a 450-foot statue on Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay). | Lit Hub Politics
• Ben Machell chronicles the life of Tony Cornell, the 20th century’s most prolific ghost hunter. | Lit Hub History
• How Ludwig Wittgenstein “came to think of philosophy as a never-ending form of therapy.” | Lit Hub Biography
• Lauren Hough goes looking for ghost towns (which is harder than it sounds). | Texas Highways
• Aida Alami reports on the status of Leqaa Kordia, “the last Columbia protester in ICE detention.” | The New Yorker
• Amber Tamblyn remembers Andrea Gibson, “that rare breed of writer whose deep compassion for the human condition was limitless, potent, and unequivocal.” | Poetry
• “Despite their sometimes shaggy-dog qualities, they have a centripetal force to them.” Gene Seymour considers Chester Himes’ Harlem noirs. | The Nation
• Michael Callahan considers the case of the Hardy Boys’ success. | Smithsonian Magazine
• Writers, musicians, and the Simpsons discuss their favorite Pynchon novels. | The New York Times
• “I’m surprised to find that, despite my vanguard pieties, I do think of writing as therapy. I think of it as cardiac rehab.” Ben Lerner on open-heart surgery. | New York Review of Books
• Meghan Racklin considers Fanny Howe’s pseudonymous romance novels, and their “anticipation of [her] later spiritual seeking.” | The New Republic
• How a cryptic Substack edgelord exerted influence over New York’s most reactionary art and literature scene from across the Atlantic. | The Cut
• Xiaolu Guo on disrupting and reinventing works in the Western canon, and “writing [as] a form of semiotic sabotage.” | Words Without Borders
• Tita Chico examines the radical power of Black global cinema. | Public Books
• Another reason not to use AI? Turns out, LLMs get brain rot, too. | Wired
• “My brain is not immune to the realities of history. The heart, though, is a machine that can be more easily fueled by mythology, by invention.” Hanif Abdurraqib on the possibilities of the song “Groove Theory.” | Longreads
• Zadie Smith makes the case for (serious) glamour. | Vogue
• Stefania Heim and Ara H. Merjian explore the often overlooked writing of Giorgio de Chirico. | Public Books

Also on Lit Hub:

Stephen King reflects on the numerous adaptations of his work • The impact of Black labor unions on poetry • Read John Updike’s letters to his editor, William Maxwell • Why we should “move slow and make things” • Jane Ciabattari interviews Adam Johnson • The sweet spot between memoir and fiction • Yaron Weitzman recommends books for basketball lovers • The horrors of the troubled teen industry • The influence of Welsh culture on Fleetwood Mac and more • The folklore behind natural history • When Aboriginal leader Tracker Tilmouth went to the United Nations • On loving the Lithuanian language and being trapped by it • Sewing as a way to look forward • The trailblazing career of Paulette Nardal • Amy Gallo Ryan considers monogamous writing • The mysteries behind words of unknown origins • Is your small town the center of the universe? • Five essential books for understanding Haitian history • What her mother’s past as an inventor taught Coco McCracken • On school lunches (also, a chicken soup recipe!) •  Hedi El Kholti and Dan Simon remember their friend Gary Indiana • Six essential texts on the German Peasants’ War • 5 book reviews you need to read this week • How Christopher Columbus wreaked havoc in the Caribbean • Maris Kreizman suggests you go easy on yourself • Evan Dando the beginning of his sobriety • The race to develop nuclear weapons in Germany, the USSR, and Japan • The finalists for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize answer our questions • Cynthia Zarin remembers her late friend, writer Alison Rose • How processing trauma helped push Gabriel Urza’s novel forward • The best reviewed books of the week • The relationship between documentary filmmaking and memoir • Why do humans fixate on flying? • Grant Chemidlin recalls how shame drove him away from writing • The impact of climate change on global food production