By 2 a.m. we were happily lost again. Dimly illuminated arches and doorways reflected off the green canal waters. My daughter, Vivian, 16, and I were on a lion hunt in Venice, an annual occurrence for six years now. If I felt slightly silly coming to this ancient tourist trap every year, I was comforted … Read more
Joel Paley, a dancer, playwright and director who wrote the book and lyrics for “Ruthless!,” an award-winning Off Broadway musical about an ambitious girl who will do anything — including murder her rival — to star in a grade school show, died on Jan. 11 in Milford, Conn. He was 69 and lived in Redding, … Read more
In Han Kang’s latest novel, a character saws off the tips of two of her fingers in a woodworking accident. Surgeons reattach them but the treatment is gruesome and agonizing. Every three minutes, for weeks on end, a caregiver carefully, dispassionately sinks needles deep into the sutures on each finger, drawing blood, to prevent the … Read more