The Comment Factory

Follow-ups are a crucible. The first novel brings the challenges of any piece of literature. At least half, if not more, of the book’s success comes the readers’ experiential discovery of the central characters. Ideally, every page is a new awakening, and the sense of wonderment shouldn’t cease until the book is done. So the second novel in a serial poses a problem. We know the characters. We’ve already tagged along through an adventure with them. If we’re reading the second book, that doesn’t mean we simply liked the plot and the protagonists; it means we enjoyed the process of learning to like the plot and the protagonists

MacDonald’s assertion is rooted in an supremely false assumption: she demands that if poverty and crime are correlated, they should automatically increase in equal and immediate proportion.

The time is now for Obama to take on the Israel-Palestine issue.

Zachary Goelman reports on the fallout at York University from Israel’s war in Gaza.

Zachary Goelman reports on a lecture from Professor Mordechai Kedar, a Koranic scholar, who is quick to pick apart the Islamic faith on a rational level, but is unable to do it to with his own Judaism.

Two patriotic secular Israeli soldiers recently penned a letter decrying the influence of the religious establishment on the military. What does this portend for the future of secularism in Israel?

Hollywood still exploits many ethnic stereotypes when it casts its films.

President-elect Barack Obama’s message of change is being co-opted by certain Israeli politicians who have no intention to create peace with the Palestinians or their neighbors.

Zachary Goelman describes coming into the U.S. from Canada with an Arabic dictionary, keffiyeh — and oranges.

With the Canadian general elections taking place on Tuesday, the media has had an unprecedented effect on the outcome. But one of the country’s most respected media outlets went mute on election day due to a staff strike causing it to print comical drivel.