Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture

Daniel Mendelsohn, renowned for his reviews in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review, brings together twenty-four of his recent essays. These essays explore various subjects, from Avatar to Rimbaud, the Titanic, and Susan Sontag’s Journals. Mendelsohn effortlessly connects the classics to contemporary life and letters, and dissects pop spectacles like Mad Men. The book also includes essays on fiction, from Jonathan Littell’s Holocaust film The Kindly Ones to forgotten gems like Theodor Fontane’s novels. In a final section, “Private Lives,” Mendelsohn considers the lives and work of writers like Leo Lerman, Noël Coward, and Jonathan Franzen. 

This collection showcases Mendelsohn’s impressive sweep as a cultural critic and depth in his analysis.