Alexandra Schwartz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing for 2014.
Growing up, Shopsin’s world had clear boundaries: anywhere above Fourteenth Street was uptown, foreign territory that was breached only on rare occasions.
In a recording of his lecture, which he just submitted, Dylan sounds like a lounge singer lost in contemplative patter, just letting the thoughts flow.