The August 2 New Yorker (the one with that great article by Atul Gawande) has a writeup of Marilynne Robinson's new book, Absence of Mind, in its "Briefly Noted" column. Commonweal published an excerpt from the book, "Thinking Again," in May. The unsigned review in the New Yorker ends this way:

Robinson is eloquent in her defense of the minds prerogatives, but her call for a renewed metaphysics might be better served by rereading Heidegger than by dusting off the Psalms.

I often get the feeling that there aren't many Bibles, dusty or otherwise, in the New Yorker's offices. Exhibit B, from the July 12 issue, is this unhelpful visual from an otherwise very perceptive review of Ann Carson's new book, Nox, by Meghan O'Rourke:

The contents arrive not between two covers but in a box about the size of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

So...somewhere between this and this, I guess?By the way, did you know it's possible to purchase a "slightly imperfect" Bible? The site doesn't specify what the imperfections are for any given item, but here's hoping they just left out those dusty old Psalms.

Mollie Wilson O’​Reilly is editor-at-large and columnist at Commonweal.

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