Thomas Vinciguerra

Thomas Vinciguerra reviews a collection of Cornell lectures from the comic actor and Monty Python legend.

Thomas Vinciguerra on the odd tale of the Texan who tried to walk around the world backward.

The piece you’ve read a hundred times before: Saying goodbye at the dorm-room door—and then writing about it.

War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters today and if it’s anything like its predecessors, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), it should be a hoot.

Men who disrespect their beards are beginning to annoy me. On this all-important subject, I have a prejudiced perspective. Facial hair has swirled around my jaw (and upper lip) for almost 35 years. Granted, my look hasn’t been consistent. Lately, a lot of salt has spilled into the pepper. My fuzzy…

While watching Pollock for maybe the sixth time, I found myself intrigued anew by Ed Harris as the titular splatter king. Once again, I wondered what it was about his performance that kept me tuned in. It could have been the conviction with which he conveyed his alter ego’s determination to express…

Researchers at Cambridge and the Complutense University of Madrid recently suggested that two planets larger than Earth might exist in the solar system, beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. Skywatchers are atwitter, as well they should be. If true, this is major news. 

Two years ago, Philip Roth announced, to rapt attention, that he had ceased writing fiction. Then, last May, following a sold-out appearance at the 92nd Street Y, Roth said that he would no longer engage in public readings. “You can write it down,” he said. “This was absolutely the last appearance…

Determined to enhance my culture quotient, I recently watched Pollock on cable for about the hundredth time. Once again, I tried to figure out why the movie mesmerizes me. Surely it couldn’t be just the drip of the paint or the whine of Marcia Gay Harden. No, it had to be something else, some…

Imagine a writer who, by his mid-thirties, had published more than a million words in the New Yorker. Imagine one who turned out trenchant fact pieces, cutting yet perceptive criticism, finely wrought short stories, and hilarious vignettes. Imagine him doing all that despite a loveless childhood,…