D. J. Waldie’s strikingly beautiful book in 1996 about what it was like to grow up in Lakewood, Calif., “Holy Land,” is one of many writings by this chronicler of Los Angeles’s past and future.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inFaith in Focus, Politics & Society
A prayer for a city I love, the City of Angels
In Los Angeles, people stay for the movie credits. After the awful images of these fires are gone, they will stay to rebuild their city, too.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Remembering David Lodge, the ‘agnostic Catholic’ who captured the post-Vatican II zeitgeist
David Lodge’s novels—as well as his many works of nonfiction—made him an important figure in 20th-century British literature. He also captured well the angst of many lay Catholics in the aftermath of Vatican II.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
A Bob Dylan nerd reviews ‘A Complete Unknown’
As a young Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” Timothee Chalamet captures some of the iconic singer’s enigmatic yet magnetic personality.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
A guide for Christmas reading—highlighting the Dickensian fiction of Oscar Hijuelos
Oscar Hijuelos’s ‘Mr. Ives’ Christmas’ doesn’t start out as a cheery story—but in the end, this parable of good will lost and good will regained is a perfect Christmas tale.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Bishop John Cummins and the Catholic history of Oakland
Bishop John Cummins had a significant and lasting impact on the Catholic Church in his own diocese and elsewhere through his quiet leadership and ministry. He was a reminder to many of what Pope Francis meant when he called for bishops who are “pastors, not princes.”
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
We were all childlike once. Jesus is calling us to be that way again.
A Reflection for Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
John Banville: notorious literary esthete—and crime novelist
John Banville is surely the only crime novelist in recent memory who has won the Booker Prize and is regularly rumored to be in the running for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘Gladiator II’ reminds us what we already knew: America can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire
The box office success of “Gladiator II” is a reminder that many Americans are obsessed with the Roman Empire. They’ve been joined over the years by more than a few ‘America’ contributors.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Doris Grumbach, L.G.B.T. pioneer and fearless literary critic
Doris Grumbach was an accomplished novelist, literary critic, biographer and memoirist and an early pioneer for her books exploring L.G.B.T. themes. She was also a longtime book reviewer and essayist for ‘America.’