The ‘Life Is Beautiful’ Problem
I have never seen the movie “Life Is Beautiful.” I haven’t seen it because when it came out, everybody, and I do mean everybody, told me I had to see it, that it was too good to miss. Maybe it is. All these years later, I’m still not inclined to find out. The critical collective spoke too loudly. My spouse and I call this the “Life Is Beautiful” problem. It applies to books as well. I thought about this recently while reading novelist Michael Cunningham’s two-part “Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury” in the New Yorker’s Page-Turner blog. You might… Read more...