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‘If You Love It, Let It Kill You' turns navel-gazing into art
‘If You Love It, Let It Kill You' turns navel-gazing into art

Washington Post

timea day ago

  • Entertainment
  • Washington Post

‘If You Love It, Let It Kill You' turns navel-gazing into art

A few weeks ago, David Brooks ran out of things to write about in the New York Times and so decided to pour more water over some old tea bag about the death of literary fiction. 'America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women,' he wrote, and 'the public taste is occupied with their trash.' No — wait — that was Nathaniel Hawthorne back in 1855, but you get the idea. Our latest novels, Brooks wrote, have grown timid and insular. As someone who's been reviewing fiction every week for three decades and often feels moved and dazzled, I could sense a rebuttal swelling in my evidently easily pleased brain. Just over the last few months, Bruce Holsinger's 'Culpability' tackled the ethical implications of AI, Susan Choi's 'Flashlight' explored the abiding tragedy of North Korea, Karen Russell's 'The Antidote' conjured up a magical tale of environmental destruction in the American West, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 'Dream Count' followed the intertwined lives of women in the United States and Africa. Timid and insular, sir? I think not. But it was then, perched atop my high dudgeon, that I noticed I was reading Hannah Pittard's 'If You Love It, Let It Kill You.' Pittard, as you may know from her 2023 memoir, 'We Are Too Many,' is an English professor in Kentucky whose husband cheated on her. Now she's written a novel about an English professor in Kentucky whose husband cheated on her. It sounds like the kind of book you'd want to keep on the bottom shelf if you had to debate David Brooks about the ambition and audacity of contemporary American fiction. At times, you might even wonder whose side Pittard is on. Early in 'If You Love It,' the narrator admits, 'I'm a chronicler of the everyday mundanities of life.' She imagines her students complaining, 'Where's the plot?' Her partner tells her, 'You're a family of navel gazers.' He's not wrong, but that Brooksian dismissal hardly tells the whole story, because the success of such a novel depends on the navel and the gazer. For all its quirky self-referentiality and cramped plot, 'If You Love It' is an account of female anxiety, depression and sexual dissatisfaction. For decades, male anxiety, depression and sexual dissatisfaction passed as capacious themes for fiction (See: 20th-century novels by White guys named John). That such audacious writers as Pittard, Kate Folk, Ada Calhoun and Miranda July are turning those themes on the lathes of their own sharp fiction isn't just fair play, it's cause for celebration. Pittard's special contribution is her ability to braid strands of pathos and comedy. The melancholy narrator, an avatar of the author trimmed down to 'Hana,' feels besieged by the close presence of family, including her sister's household next door; her severely unbalanced father, who wants to be a charming character in one of her books; her eccentric mother, who's dating three men simultaneously online; and her partner's 11-year-old daughter, who has surely heard Hana say she doesn't like kids. What's worse, Hana has just learned that her ex-husband is about to publish a novel about their ruined marriage that portrays her as a smug, insecure hack. The publisher will be using her full name in the publicity material. 'You can't use fiction as a means of making false accusations about living people,' Hana says. 'It's unethical. Fiction isn't a platform for revenge.' These indignant lines are funnier if you're tuned into the literary kerfuffle that's been rumbling between Pittard and her ex-husband, Andrew Ewell, who did, in fact, publish a novel last year called 'Set For Life' inspired by their ruined marriage. But what's pertinent to most readers is that this story follows a mad woman, a woman mad at life, who lives too much in her head, is dogged by erratic erotic urges and suspects there might be something troubling about her desire to play dead. 'It's all happening too quickly,' she thinks, 'and it couldn't be over too soon.' Hana's humor keeps rolling over these adamantine terrors like waves, but periodically when that tide of comedy pulls back, we find ourselves stranded with a middle-aged woman crying, 'oh my god this is not what my life was supposed to be, is it?' At such moments, 'If You Love It,' feels almost too heartbreaking to bear. But Pittard doesn't leave us there. For one thing, Hana imagines her writing students critiquing her story as it takes place. And they aren't particularly kind — 'Is this some sort of plot device?' they ask impatiently. Hana doesn't hold back on them, either. She portrays her students as chronically unimaginative writers always pestering her for permission to add vampires and talking cats to their work. Until, what do you know, a particularly acerbic kitten paws into Hana's life and starts mewing no-nonsense advice. And with that surreal intrusion, 'If You Love It' tilts another few degrees away from reality's plumb line. If memoir is that pious figure who vows to tell the truth and then lies, autofiction is the cheeky kid who wants extra credit for confessing her deceit up front. Is Pittard working through her own private catastrophes in this novel? Of course — but so is every other novelist. She's just letting us see the splintered timbers of her experience clearly enough to recognize our own. 'This book,' Hana tells us, is 'neither a comedy nor a tragedy but something much worse: real life.' And what is that, really, besides the long struggle to understand — and appreciate — that we're all characters in each other's stories. Ron Charles reviews books and writes the Book Club newsletter for The Washington Post. He is the book critic for 'CBS Sunday Morning.'

New call to increase Personal Allowance to £25,000 for all pensioners
New call to increase Personal Allowance to £25,000 for all pensioners

Daily Record

timea day ago

  • Business
  • Daily Record

New call to increase Personal Allowance to £25,000 for all pensioners

The Personal Allowance is set to remain frozen at £12,570 until April 2028. Income tax rises for Scots in April - how the changes affect you A new online petition is calling on the UK Government to increase the personal tax allowance from £12,570 to 'at least £25,000' to help support pensioners in retirement. The Labour Government announced earlier this year that the Personal Allowance will remain frozen at £12,570 until April 2028. Petition creator Rosemary Grey argues that raising the income threshold would 'support our older citizens, many of whom have already contributed by paying tax during their working life'. The e-petition has been posted on the UK Government's Petitions Parliament website. At 10,000 signatures of support it would be entitled to a written response from the UK Government, at 100,000, it would be considered by the Petitions Committee for debate in Parliament. The latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show there are now 13 million people of State Pension age across the country. The current official age of retirement is 66 and set to rise to 67 between 2027 and 2028. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data indicates that 8.7m pensioners are projected to pay income tax on their retirement income in 2025/26. It marks an increase of around 420,000 compared to the previous year (2024/25) and a rise of 1.85m from 10 years ago (2015/16). The full annual New State Pension reached £11,973 in 2025/26, tipping hundreds of thousands more pensioners into paying income tax. The UK Government has also confirmed it will honour the Triple Lock policy during this parliamentary term. However, this could see everyone on the full, New State Pension pushed over the tax threshold in just two years' time. David Brooks, head of policy at leading independent consultancy Broadstone, said: 'We would expect a growing number of pensioners to be liable for income tax as the country's demographic changes due to our ageing population. 'Fiscal drag, however, is also bringing hundreds of thousands more pensioners into paying Income Tax bracket every year as the frozen Personal Allowance thresholds combines with the Triple Lock-protected State Pension. 'While perhaps personally frustrating for many pensioners, it reflects the nature of inflation linked occupational pensions and a Triple-locked State Pension that continues to rise.' He added: 'The government will be called on again to protect pensioners from this impact but with seemingly few ways to control the rise in pensioner incomes, taxation is the only tool left. 'We should also expect the income tax from pensioners to rise in coming years as more income will be taken from pensions. Taking pension income is the key way to protect pension benefits from the impact of the Inheritance Tax Rules on unspent pension funds due to come in from April 2027.' Under the Triple Lock policy, the New and Basic State Pensions increase each year in-line with whichever is the highest between the average annual earnings growth from May to July, CPI in the year to September, or 2.5 per cent. It is aimed at preventing the value of the State Pensions being whittled away by cost of living pressures. The New and Basic State Pensions increased by 4.1 per cent in April, however, future forecasts from the Labour Government expect it to rise by 2.5 per cent over the next four financial years. Using these calculations, it puts the full New State Pension on track to be worth £12,578.80 in the 2027/28 financial year - £78.80 over the Personal Allowance. While the amount of State Pension to be taxed may seem relatively small - tax is only paid on the amount over the Personal Allowance - older people with other income streams could find themselves having to part with more cash to pay a tax bill - if it's not automatically deducted from private or workplace pensions through PAYE. Online guidance at on who might need to pay tax on their pension also includes a handy tool to calculate how much tax someone might need to pay, and the different ways this can be done. The latest State Pension Triple Lock predictions show the following projected annual increases: ‌ 2025/26 - 4.1%, the forecast was 4% 2026/27 - 2.5% 2027/28 - 2.5% 2028/29 - 2.5% 2029/30 - 2.5% State Pension payments 2025/26 Full New State Pension Weekly payment: £230.25 Four-weekly payment: £921 Annual amount: £11,973 ‌ Full Basic State Pension Weekly payment: £176.45 Four-weekly payment: £705.80 Annual amount: £9,175 Future new State Pension forecasts Under a 2.5 per cent increase, the full New State Pension will be worth: ‌ 2026/27 - £236 per week, £12,227.30 a year 2027/28 - £241.90 per week, £12,578.80 a year What is taxed Guidance on states: 'You pay tax if your total annual income adds up to more than your Personal Allowance. Find out about your Personal Allowance and Income Tax rates. Your total income could include: ‌ the State Pension you get - Basic or New State Pension Additional State Pension a private pension (workplace or personal) - you can take some of this tax-free earnings from employment or self-employment any taxable benefits you get any other income, such as money from investments, property or savings Check if you have to pay tax on your pension Before you can check, you will need to know: ‌ if you have a State Pension or a private pension how much State Pension and private pension income you will get this tax year (April 6 to April 5) the amount of any other taxable income you'll get this tax year (for example, from employment or state benefits) You cannot use this tool if you get: any foreign income Marriage Allowance Blind Person's Allowance ‌ Use this online tool at to check if you have to pay tax on your pension. The full guide to tax when you get a pension can be found on here.

Has the Death of the Novel Been Greatly Exaggerated?
Has the Death of the Novel Been Greatly Exaggerated?

New York Times

time4 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • New York Times

Has the Death of the Novel Been Greatly Exaggerated?

To the Editor: Re 'The Decline of Great Novels,' by David Brooks (column, July 13): I'm a novelist in my 20s, squarely in the cohort of writers that Mr. Brooks claims are conformists afraid to truly express their thoughts on the page. This is an interesting idea. Can one make art if one is scared to tell the truth? I'd argue not, obviously. I would not be interested in reading or writing a book that conforms in any way. I strongly believe that one should make art only if one is not afraid to be bold. Unlike Mr. Brooks, I think there are plenty of gifted young writers who are working on bold, uncomfortable and groundbreaking novels. In fact, some of them were in my M.F.A. program, which Mr. Brooks seems to think is the height of conformity. Mr. Brooks is not wrong to suggest that the reasons there are no literary superstars today à la Saul Bellow and Philip Roth are shorter attention spans and more time on screens. But to suggest that there are no literary superstars because there aren't any young writers willing to be innovative on the page because of their perceived politics could not be further from the truth. Sophie KempBrooklyn To the Editor: David Brooks argues that novels no longer have the same cultural importance they once had. I think this is true, but it illustrates a change that has taken place often in the past and is usually not recognized until much later. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, literary reputations were made with long narrative poems like Spenser's 'Faerie Queene,' Marlowe's 'Hero and Leander' and Shakespeare's 'Rape of Lucrece' and with sonnet sequences. It took more than a century for people to recognize that stage plays — popular literature written to make money — were the greatest works of the period. In the 19th century, French critics wondered when the Great Romantic Drama would be produced, oblivious to the fact that the great art form of the period was all around them: the novel. And all of the debates of the 20th century about what could claim to be the Great American Novel missed that the most significant art form of the century was film, while great artists like John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock were dismissed by many Americans as popular culture. I do not know what ultimately will be recognized as the defining artistic medium of our period, but I am sure it will have been popular and damned with faint praise by the intelligentsia. Christopher J. WheatleyPort Ludlow, writer is a professor emeritus of English at the Catholic University of America. To the Editor: David Brooks's column on the decline of literary fiction struck a nerve. I recently submitted my 200-page manuscript — an attempt at literary fiction — to 40 publishers in France and Quebec. Not long ago, editors would return your manuscript with a comment, sometimes even a page-long critique. A rejection, yes — but also a gesture of respect and engagement. Today, most publishers state that they prefer receiving manuscripts by email and that they may never respond. The process has become opaque and discouraging. I don't know whether my book is good or not, but it's hard to grow as a writer when silence is the only reply. My 30-year-old son was once an avid reader — the Harry Potter books and stories by Guy de Maupassant by age 12. He doesn't read fiction anymore, though he did admit recently that he missed it and that Maupassant's 'Bel-Ami' gave him his first sexual awakening. That's the power fiction used to have. The deeper loss isn't just readership — it's the fading relationship among writers, readers and the gatekeepers who once nurtured them. Isabelle LandryMontreal To the Editor: As a lifelong reader, I disagree with David Brooks's assessment of a dearth of great novels. In the last year I have read the novels 'James,' by Percival Everett; 'The Emperor of Gladness,' by Ocean Vuong; 'Our Missing Hearts,' by Celeste Ng; 'The Mighty Red,' by Louise Erdrich; and many others. It's not that there is a lack of great books being written; it's an inability to become involved with something that is slower than social media, the internet or any of the other readily available speedy distractions. Reading continues to be one of my greatest pleasures. To share someone else's ideas through their words has opened me up in so many ways. To share these words with others — family, friends or grandchildren — is an immense joy. Leslie ValasBerkeley, Calif. To the Editor: David Brooks makes some excellent points about the apparent decline of great novels, but he should not despair. John Irving's 16th novel, 'Queen Esther,' is set to be published on Nov. 4. Mr. Irving's previous works have sold millions of copies, four have topped The New York Times's best-seller list, and four have been published by Modern Library. Mr. Irving typically focuses on difficult topics such as feminism, sexual abuse, gay and transgender bigotry, abortion, antisemitism and more, always with compassion, imagination, insight and sometimes prescience. He always fulfills Mr. Brooks's quest for capturing 'psychological and spiritual storms.' All is not lost. Sheldon HirschWilmette, Ill. To the Editor: David Brooks attributes the novel's decline to three elements: the internet, social pressure and conformity of thought. But there is arguably one more: the rise of the critic as the dominant and all-pervasive voice, the 'superstar' in academic literary circles and beyond beginning in the 1970s. One thinks, for example, of Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan and Paul de Man. The relevance of the author was challenged (replaced by the critic), as was the text (replaced by theory). The novel as story was assigned to the 'unenlightened.' As a consequence, higher education lost touch with the American public — which, frankly, still enjoys a good story and is also curious about the motivations of the author. William G. DurdenBaltimoreThe writer is a former president of Dickinson College.

Aasgaard set for Rangers medical & Brooks linked with Martin reunion
Aasgaard set for Rangers medical & Brooks linked with Martin reunion

BBC News

time04-07-2025

  • Sport
  • BBC News

Aasgaard set for Rangers medical & Brooks linked with Martin reunion

Rangers had a verbal offer of £1m for Lennon Miller rejected a year ago but have not inquired again since for the 18-year-old Motherwell midfielder recently capped by Scotland. (Daily Record), externalReports that David Brooks' move to West Bromwich Albion is off has opened the door for a reunion with Rangers head coach Russell Martin, who worked with the 27-year-old Bournemouth winger at Southampton. (Sky Sports), externalNorway midfielder Thelo Aasgaard is set for a medical with Rangers before the 23-year-old's proposed move from Luton Town. (Scottish Sun), externalRangers will pay Luton Town £5m for Norway midfielder Thelo Aasgaard. (Four Lads Had a Dream podcast), externalWales midfielder Tom Lawrence is keen on signing for Wrexham after being freed by Rangers. (Daily Mail), externalRead the rest of Friday's Scottish gossip.

‘Trump Has Betrayed His Working-Class Voters': What 7 Conservatives Really Think of Trump's Bill
‘Trump Has Betrayed His Working-Class Voters': What 7 Conservatives Really Think of Trump's Bill

New York Times

time03-07-2025

  • Business
  • New York Times

‘Trump Has Betrayed His Working-Class Voters': What 7 Conservatives Really Think of Trump's Bill

With President Trump poised to sign his signature policy bill into law, Times Opinion asked seven of our conservative columnists and contributors a simple question: Will it be good for America or bad for America? The group we convened included libertarians, New Right thinkers and traditional conservatives — people from all corners of the conservative universe. Here's what they thought. ← Bad Good → Best Provision David Brooks The increase in the child tax credit (to $2,200 from $2,000) and the tax-advantaged savings accounts for children (with a government contribution of $1,000 per child born from 2024 to 2028). Those are policies proven to decrease child poverty, and they are consistent with the general trend we should be taking: Spend more on the young and less on the old. David French The defense spending increase — the bill adds $150 billion to the Pentagon's budget — is necessary and overdue. America's military spending as a percentage of its gross domestic product is near its post-Cold War lows, in spite of the fact that Russian aggression has escalated and China is engaged in an immense military buildup. Matt Labash Even if I hate the bill — and I do — it also seems to deeply irritate Elon Musk. And anything that irritates Musk as much as Musk irritates the rest of us should earn grudging credit as a karmic delivery system. Katherine Mangu-Ward Extending the income tax provision in Trump's 2017 tax cuts was a perfectly reasonable thing to do (though it should have been paired with more spending cuts). The fact that the extension is permanent means a modicum of stability in the fiscal chaos. At least we won't have to have this exact fight again soon. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

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