The Cult Classic That Captures the Stress of Social Alienation
The Japanese novelist Osamu Dazai wrote, better than almost anyone, about the thin line between isolation and belonging.
Jane Yong Kim
Jane Yong Kim is a deputy editor at The Atlantic, where she oversees the Culture, Family, and Books sections.
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Illustration by The Atlantic Introducing an Expanded Books Section
This magazine has always been a destination for great writers and for those who love literature. That’s why we’re making books a much bigger part of what we do.
Oliver Munday / The Atlantic How Better Luck Tomorrow Argued for Its Existence, 15 Years Ago
Justin Lin’s indie about a group of bad teenagers in suburbia hit theaters in 2003, complicating the question of Asian American representation in Hollywood in ways that still resonate deeply today.
MTV Films / Courtesy Everett Collection The Best Books We Missed in 2017
And the titles their authors say they loved
Katie Martin / Emily Jan / The Atlantic Eka Kurniawan's Darkly Comic Tale of Boyhood
Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, by the Indonesian author of Beauty Is a Wound, is a surreal, poignant account of a teen attempting to become a man.
Beawiharta / Reuters The Sad, Ecstatic Passions of Carol Rama
Over six prolific decades, the self-taught Italian artist explored the female body and its social context with curiosity and urgency.
Carol Rama / New Museum Anicka Yi’s Strangely Persuasive World of Smells
The artist’s Guggenheim show uses olfactory experiments to overturn assumptions about gender, race, and hygiene.
David Heald / Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation The Best Books We Missed in 2016
And the titles their authors say they loved
Zak Bickel / Katie Martin / Paul Spella / The Atlantic
