Arts

The show's plot and very existence provoke larger questions around race, representation and casting.

Jennifer Egan's new novel, set in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, is full of deeply researched period detail and rich, memorable characters — though their motivations don't always add up.

Kazuo Ishiguro was 5 when his family moved from Japan to Britain; he has said that as a kid, he used TV Westerns — like Bonanza and Wagon Train -- to help him learn English.

A recent encounter with new theater technologies demonstrated that it's not always a good thing when technological advancements make the experience more, as they say, "immersive."

For centuries, Shakespeare's tragedy was too painful for audiences; it was performed with an altered happy ending. But Edward St. Aubyn has never flinched at inflicting pain on his readers.

For many people, it's just not Fall without this tasty combo. And when the first cars hit the roads, farm stands began selling the drink along with a fried treat made by a new machine.

A new exhibition at New York's MoMA explores the social history of clothing items like flip-flops ("a humble masterpiece," according to one curator) and the white T-shirt.

Every year, speculation spreads from the literati to the betting houses and every year many of the same names turn up on the list of potential winners.

Julia Wertz's loving, obsessively detailed visual history of the less-distinguished corners of New York City celebrates charming flops, long-gone businesses and dusty corners where dreams go to die.