The Last Page

Not long ago I attended a conference on the theme, “Are serious books in serious trouble?” The question was rhetorical. One by one the suspects were arraigned on charges: publishing conglomerates, superstores, television, public education. By the end American culture itself was on trial, and some of the jeremiads sounded like big-picture attacks on imperialism, with the roles of Nixon, Kissinger, and the International Monetary Fund filled by Viacom, Rupert Murdoch, and Barnes and Noble. N...