Anthony Domestico
@tonydomestico.bsky.social
Critic and associate professor of literature at Purchase College, SUNY
"Guv'ner," says Phil with exceeding gravity, "he's a leech in his dispositions, he's a screw and a wice in his actions, a snake in his twistings, and a lobster in his claws."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
November 9, 2025 at 11:38 AM
"Guv'ner," says Phil with exceeding gravity, "he's a leech in his dispositions, he's a screw and a wice in his actions, a snake in his twistings, and a lobster in his claws."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
What better way to start a Friday than by listening to Joel and I talk about Mason & Dixon? on.soundcloud.com/dhLTLsFPABxW...
Episode Twenty-Eight: Mason & Dixon (November 2025)
Reading too widely and talking too seriously.
soundcloud.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:12 PM
What better way to start a Friday than by listening to Joel and I talk about Mason & Dixon? on.soundcloud.com/dhLTLsFPABxW...
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
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.
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
"I was seeing men styling, wallowing, and self-pitying, but I wasn’t seeing them reading or writing or thinking." Steve Donoghue on the vacuous, anti-intellectual world that men's magazines present to the young men who read them. open.substack.com/pub/stevedon...
Go Read, Young Man
Why Esquire needs a Books editor
stevedonoghue.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:33 PM
"I was seeing men styling, wallowing, and self-pitying, but I wasn’t seeing them reading or writing or thinking." Steve Donoghue on the vacuous, anti-intellectual world that men's magazines present to the young men who read them. open.substack.com/pub/stevedon...
My conversation with Brandon Taylor for @commonweal.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 2:26 PM
My conversation with Brandon Taylor for @commonweal.bsky.social
In case you missed it ...
My October column for @commonweal.bsky.social on Hester Kaplan's "Twice Born" and a new genre: the critic's daughter's memoir.
www.commonwealmagazine.org/domestico-cr...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/domestico-cr...
Do Critics Make Good Parents?
How does the life of the critic, which demands both vulnerability and authority, translate into the life of the father?
www.commonwealmagazine.org
November 1, 2025 at 5:20 PM
In case you missed it ...
My October column for @commonweal.bsky.social on Hester Kaplan's "Twice Born" and a new genre: the critic's daughter's memoir.
www.commonwealmagazine.org/domestico-cr...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/domestico-cr...
Do Critics Make Good Parents?
How does the life of the critic, which demands both vulnerability and authority, translate into the life of the father?
www.commonwealmagazine.org
October 31, 2025 at 1:14 PM
My October column for @commonweal.bsky.social on Hester Kaplan's "Twice Born" and a new genre: the critic's daughter's memoir.
www.commonwealmagazine.org/domestico-cr...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/domestico-cr...
A conversation with Brandon Taylor about his new novel, "Minor Black Figures," and lots of Catholic stuff for @commonweal.bsky.social
www.commonwealmagazine.org/learning-zola
www.commonwealmagazine.org/learning-zola
Learning from Zola
Brandon Taylor's latest novel, 'Minor Black Figures,' examines why we make art and what it means to be 'real.'
www.commonwealmagazine.org
October 30, 2025 at 2:14 PM
A conversation with Brandon Taylor about his new novel, "Minor Black Figures," and lots of Catholic stuff for @commonweal.bsky.social
www.commonwealmagazine.org/learning-zola
www.commonwealmagazine.org/learning-zola
"In the matter of gravy he is adamant."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
October 29, 2025 at 11:06 AM
"In the matter of gravy he is adamant."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
"For," says he, "it's being ground to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going mad by grains."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
October 17, 2025 at 2:31 PM
"For," says he, "it's being ground to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going mad by grains."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
Wonderful to spend time rereading Spark this summer/fall.
I wrote on Muriel Spark, perfection, and Frances Wilson's excellent new biography for @bookpostusa.bsky.social
books.substack.com/p/review-ant...
books.substack.com/p/review-ant...
Review: Anthony Domestico on Muriel Spark
A disordered perfectionist
books.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Wonderful to spend time rereading Spark this summer/fall.
I wrote on Muriel Spark, perfection, and Frances Wilson's excellent new biography for @bookpostusa.bsky.social
books.substack.com/p/review-ant...
books.substack.com/p/review-ant...
Review: Anthony Domestico on Muriel Spark
A disordered perfectionist
books.substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I wrote on Muriel Spark, perfection, and Frances Wilson's excellent new biography for @bookpostusa.bsky.social
books.substack.com/p/review-ant...
books.substack.com/p/review-ant...
"To the very last, and even afterwards, her frown remained unsoftened."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
October 15, 2025 at 1:28 PM
"To the very last, and even afterwards, her frown remained unsoftened."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
look at this incredible list of contributors and interlocutors for CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
so many thanks to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and Emory for hosting our launch symposium -- which is free and open to the public.
maybe you want to join us?
so many thanks to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and Emory for hosting our launch symposium -- which is free and open to the public.
maybe you want to join us?
On Friday, November 7, I'm hosting a symposium at Emory for the launch of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, which I edited with @johannawinant.bsky.social. If you plan on attending, sign up for the eventbrite—hoping to get a rough gauge for attendance www.eventbrite.com/e/close-read...
October 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
look at this incredible list of contributors and interlocutors for CLOSE READING FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
so many thanks to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and Emory for hosting our launch symposium -- which is free and open to the public.
maybe you want to join us?
so many thanks to @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and Emory for hosting our launch symposium -- which is free and open to the public.
maybe you want to join us?
"As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
October 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM
"As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill."
- "Bleak House"
- "Bleak House"
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
Tom LeClair reviews the 2nd novel in James Elkins' 5-volume 'Strange Languages' cycle, a digressive, verbally complex heir to Nabokov, Gaddis, Pynchon and Lucy Ellmann openlettersreview.com/posts/a-shor...
A Short Introduction to Annaliese by James Elkins — Open Letters Review
A review of the complex new novel by James Elkins
openlettersreview.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Tom LeClair reviews the 2nd novel in James Elkins' 5-volume 'Strange Languages' cycle, a digressive, verbally complex heir to Nabokov, Gaddis, Pynchon and Lucy Ellmann openlettersreview.com/posts/a-shor...
I wrote on marking time in new books by Yiyun Li and John Koethe for @commonweal.bsky.social
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
Marking Time
Caring about language is really a way of caring for the world and those who are—or were—in it.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
October 3, 2025 at 1:47 PM
I wrote on marking time in new books by Yiyun Li and John Koethe for @commonweal.bsky.social
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
For my September @commonweal.bsky.social column, I wrote on Yiyun Li's "Things in Nature Merely Grow" and John Koethe's "Cemeteries and Galaxies"
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
Marking Time
Caring about language is really a way of caring for the world and those who are—or were—in it.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
October 2, 2025 at 4:18 PM
For my September @commonweal.bsky.social column, I wrote on Yiyun Li's "Things in Nature Merely Grow" and John Koethe's "Cemeteries and Galaxies"
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
"Caring about language is really a way of caring for the world and those who are—or were—in it."
@tonydomestico.bsky.social on new works by Yiyun Li and John Koethe:
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
@tonydomestico.bsky.social on new works by Yiyun Li and John Koethe:
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
Marking Time
Caring about language is really a way of caring for the world and those who are—or were—in it.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
October 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM
"Caring about language is really a way of caring for the world and those who are—or were—in it."
@tonydomestico.bsky.social on new works by Yiyun Li and John Koethe:
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
@tonydomestico.bsky.social on new works by Yiyun Li and John Koethe:
www.commonwealmagazine.org/li-yiyun-Koe...
"How can a people who do not mean to understand death hope to understand love, and who will sound the alarm?"
- John Cheever, "The Death of Justina"
- John Cheever, "The Death of Justina"
October 1, 2025 at 10:48 AM
"How can a people who do not mean to understand death hope to understand love, and who will sound the alarm?"
- John Cheever, "The Death of Justina"
- John Cheever, "The Death of Justina"
"Because Thanatoids relate in a different way to time, there was no compression toward the ends of sentences, so that they always ended by surprise."
- Pynchon, "Vineland"
- Pynchon, "Vineland"
September 19, 2025 at 2:35 PM
"Because Thanatoids relate in a different way to time, there was no compression toward the ends of sentences, so that they always ended by surprise."
- Pynchon, "Vineland"
- Pynchon, "Vineland"
"We are left with a feeling of immense sympathy for the book’s subject and the people who surrounded him."
John Skoyles on Nathan Kernan's life of Schuyler.
John Skoyles on Nathan Kernan's life of Schuyler.
New books capture the friendships, torments, and genius of two “New York School” poets: James Schuyler and Dick Gallup.
John Skoyles reviews:
www.commonwealmagazine.org/schuyler-gal...
John Skoyles reviews:
www.commonwealmagazine.org/schuyler-gal...
Feeling to Feeling
New books capture the friendships, torments, and genius of two "New York School" poets: James Schuyler and Dick Gallup.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
September 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
"We are left with a feeling of immense sympathy for the book’s subject and the people who surrounded him."
John Skoyles on Nathan Kernan's life of Schuyler.
John Skoyles on Nathan Kernan's life of Schuyler.
"More and more lately he'd been brooding about this great collective dream that everybody was being encouraged to stay tripping around in. Only now and then would you get an unplanned glimpse at the other side."
- Pynchon, "Inherent Vice"
- Pynchon, "Inherent Vice"
September 3, 2025 at 1:47 PM
"More and more lately he'd been brooding about this great collective dream that everybody was being encouraged to stay tripping around in. Only now and then would you get an unplanned glimpse at the other side."
- Pynchon, "Inherent Vice"
- Pynchon, "Inherent Vice"
"On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly."
- "Northanger Abbey"
- "Northanger Abbey"
September 2, 2025 at 5:29 PM
"On his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness, for he asked each of them how they did, and observed that they both looked very ugly."
- "Northanger Abbey"
- "Northanger Abbey"
Reposted by Anthony Domestico
Check out the contents of NEW AMERICAN REVIEW 1 in 1967: two stone classic stories by Paley and Gass, the first appearance in print of PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, top drawer critical essays and poetry, all for $.95.
September 1, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Check out the contents of NEW AMERICAN REVIEW 1 in 1967: two stone classic stories by Paley and Gass, the first appearance in print of PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, top drawer critical essays and poetry, all for $.95.