Novels include GLASS CENTURY and COLOSSUS. The next one is EMPIRE. Editor-in-Chief of @the_met_review. Subscribe to my Substack, Political Currents.
Joined October 2011
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EMPIRE, my new novel, is coming next May. It's about a terrorist attack in the heart of Manhattan, a torrid love affair between a star ballplayer's wife and the Mayor, and the fallout of a tragic - and very strange - day. Don't miss it.
We are going to need CHEESECAKE FACTORY candidates. This will be the key to 2028.
1) Will you EAT at Cheesecake Factory?
2) How MUCH can you eat at Cheeecake Factory?
If you're not getting an app, an entree, and dessert, don't lead my country.
Cheesecake Factory is cool because the calorie counts are insane and it costs more to eat there than a lot of "nice" New York City restaurants. There's Cheesecake Factory discourse happening now, but it's important to take note of these facts.
Baseball managers need to start wearing jerseys again. Sick of this hoodie stuff. Hoodies are ugly, especially in the context of the World Series. Wear jerseys or else.
Debates about the "future" of the Democrats are a bit pointless because it's all going to come down to elections and who asserts themselves. No one in the GOP debated Trump as the future in 2014 or even 2015. He went out and got himself elected president. He became the future.
Ross Barkan retweeted
I have an essay out via @the_met_review all about the effects of abysmal editing standards amongst modern writers and publications (and all about the baffling and glaring flaws/typos in Percival Everett's The Trees). We are living in The Typo Generation
metropolitanreview.org/p/the…
All respect to Fielder - great documentary - but you can't let Sacha Baron Cohen's politics distract from the insanity (and even genius) of Borat and Ali G when those were bursting on the scene in the late 90s and 00s. Major global cultural phenomenon. Singular comedy.
I don't even *love* writing about DSA but I've been doing this now since 2020 (yikes)
rosselliotbarkan.com/p/why-d…
rosselliotbarkan.com/p/berni…
Break through the paywall for this one.
rosselliotbarkan.com/p/where…
The rebuttal to this - "people will move to new neighborhoods" - misses the reality of NYC in 2026 and how gentrification works. A zone that includes Williamsburg and Bushwick, for example, is going to be diverse (by race, by income) by default. Many areas are like this.
I think @michelleinbklyn has it right: make kids go to regular schools in the neighborhoods where they live. This was how they did it the entire 20th century. My mom lived in Flatbush and went to Erasmus; my father in Jamaica, Jamaica HS. Wasn't hard.
I think @michelleinbklyn has it right: make kids go to regular schools in the neighborhoods where they live. This was how they did it the entire 20th century. My mom lived in Flatbush and went to Erasmus; my father in Jamaica, Jamaica HS. Wasn't hard.
Strongly considering writing DICK, a sprawling quasi-biographical novel about Dick Cheney, somewhat in the mode of @JoyceCarolOates' BLONDE. We’ll see if I actually do it. It’ll be a true merger of fact and fiction.
Ross Barkan retweeted
American literary culture will come back. We're in the lull period. But it will come back.
Got a nice little chunk on Mamdani-Tisch in my Zohran Mamdani book, dating back to last year. Should be interesting for people out there!
I was paying less than $3 a gallon in *New York City* earlier this year. Then Donald Trump launched a war in Iran. Now we're here. Voters will choose accordingly.
