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Contents

Vol. 26 No. 9   ·   6 May 2004

Letters

Peter Hallward, Jacqueline Rose, Lauro Martines, Yisrael Medad, Peter Connolly, Vincent Deary, Bernard Bergonzi, Murray Biggs, Harvey Dickson, Jeremy Bernstein

Colm Tóibín: A Story

Robin Robertson

Stephen Holmes on US policy in Iraq

  • Incoherent Empire by Michael Mann

Jeremy Harding on the poetry of George Oppen

  • New Collected Poems by George Oppen, edited by Michael Davidson

At Somerset House

Peter Campbell on Islamic art

Pessimism and Boys

Sheila Fitzpatrick reads the diary of a Soviet schoolgirl

  • The Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl 1932-37 by Nina Lugovskaya, translated by Joanne Turnbull

Barbara Taylor on a history of masturbation

Short Cuts

Jeremy Harding considers France’s role in Rwanda

Welly-Whanging

Thomas Jones on Alan Hollinghurst

Michael Byers: Blair and Bush reach for an international law for crusaders and conquistadors

Paul Foot on the not-so-great Reform Act

R.W. Johnson on Britain and South Africa since the Boer War

  • The Lion and the Springbok: Britain and South Africa since the Boer War by Ronald Hyam and Peter Henshaw

His Own Peak

Ian Sansom destroys John Fowles’s diary

  • John Fowles: The Journals, Vol. I edited by Charles Drazin
  • John Fowles: A Life in Two Worlds by Eileen Warburton

M.J. Hyland remembers her criminal father

Contributors

LRB cover artwork: pink, brown, black, red, blue abstract on grey background

Featured articles

Pessimism and Boys
Sheila Fitzpatrick reads the diary of a Soviet schoolgirl

Welly-Whanging
Thomas Jones on Alan Hollinghurst

His Own Peak
Ian Sansom destroys John Fowles’s diary

As long as the plan contains the magic term ‘withdrawal’, it is seen as a good thing
Ilan Pappe: Israel heads for disaster

At Somerset House
Peter Campbell on Islamic art

Short Cuts
Jeremy Harding considers France’s role in Rwanda