As we reach the end of 2024, we have collected our top most-read pieces of memoir, criticism and reportage.
The Pneuma Illusion | Mary Gaitskill
‘The intensity of it seemed in retrospect something inexplicable, like a sudden opening in the sky with an outpouring of visions.’
Mary Gaitskill on her experiences with Pneuma therapy.
Wagner in Africa | James Pogue
‘Many people in the country seem happy to accept mercenaries in exchange for stability.’
James Pogue on the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic.
Literature Without Literature | Christian Lorenzen
‘Corporate publishing is the channel through which literature happens to flow at this moment in history.’
Christian Lorentzen dissects the literary establishment.
Five O’Clock Somewhere | Gary Indiana
‘It’s when things fail to return to normal, that finally you get it: this is normal.’
Gary Indiana on growing older.
The Trouble with Old Men | Samuel Moyn
‘The choicest parts of the world’s richest cities, according to demographers, are dense with aged residents.’
Samuel Moyn on gerontocracy.
My Spiritual Evolution | Tao Lin
‘I came to feel that I was hiding here in the physical world, like a child who hides in a computer game to escape a more consequential reality.’
Tao Lin on his spiritual awakening, via psychedelics and the literature of near-death experiences.
A Good First Marriage is Luck | Sheila Heti & Phyllis Rose
‘Life is so difficult. It may take more than one creature to sustain one life.’
Sheila Heti in conversation with Phyllis Rose.
Universal Mother | Momtaza Mehri
‘I turn to O’Connor’s music when I get tired of lying to myself. Her songs are allegorical free-falls. Spiritual chiaroscuros, even.’
Momtaza Mehri on Sinéad O’Connor.
Adrift in the South | Xiao Hai, translated by Tony Hao
‘Finally! I thought. Now I get to work in a big factory. I was fifteen and a half years old. I was a child laborer.’
Xiao Hai on coming of age in the factories of Shenzhen, translated by Tony Hao.
Where the Language Changes | Bathsheba Demuth
‘I am on the hunt for the Russian Empire, or what traces might still exist of its colonial enterprise.’
Bathsheba Demuth travels the Yukon river, following the history of the fur trade and the Nulato massacre.
Feature image © Halin de Repentigny
