Are Women Who Hate Philip Roth Blinded By Feminist Ideology? (Nope.)

Laura Miller: “Yet if you [find Roth’s novels insufferable], and you happen to be a woman, chances are excellent that – no matter what you say – Roth proponents will assume your aversion is based in politics. This is as frustrating as telling the chef you don’t care for lamb chops and getting a self-righteous lecture on his supplier’s humane farming practices.”

Where Should New York City Opera Go? Readers Chime In

The New York Times solicits readers’ ideas about where the company should perform once it leaves Lincoln Center. Suggestions so far include the expected (NY City Center, BAM), the unlikely (a vintage 3,000-seat movie theater in Flushing, Queens), and the intriguing (the Hammerstein Ballroom, originally an opera house where Mary Garden and Tetrazzini sang).

Lorin Maazel At 81

“To be honest I don’t look back with great satisfaction at all the various people I’ve been over the decades,” he says. “In fact I often shake my head in dismay at the immaturity and puerile view of life and have the greatest compassion for young people who are going through these same stages.”