My Aftertaste review of Jordan Peele’s Us — a chilling allegorical horror film that dresses the French Revolution in postmodern American clothes. Privilege, shallow altruism, and the Tethered rising from underground: Peele never tells you what to think. He just makes sure you can’t stop.
Category Archives: Life In The Athenaeum
Aftertaste: The Giver by Lois Lowry
My review of The Giver by Lois Lowry — a quietly devastating dystopia about memory, colour, and the full cost of a full life. I read it across one rainy Queens weekend and found my own bargains with safety and distance staring back at me.
Aftertaste: The Devil Wears Prada 2
🍷 Flavour Profile Primary Notes: Prominent notes of becoming, threaded with the humbling necessity of reinventionSecondary Notes: Lingering undertones of nostalgia and the finesse of professional maturityTertiary Notes: Glimmers of performed excellence, paired with the softening effects of age 📜 Provenance 🍽️ Medium: Motion Picture👤 By: David Frankel📍 Where I Found It: Cultural Memory | General Press for the Sequel 🍷 Tasting NotesContinue reading “Aftertaste: The Devil Wears Prada 2”
Aftertaste: A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Megha Majumdar’s A Guardian and a Thief: where the climate crisis is the moral engine, not the setting, and everyone, eventually, is both guardian and thief
Aftertaste: The Devil Wears Prada
🍷 Flavour Profile Primary Notes: Strong notes of glamour with amber glints of ambition Secondary Notes: Undertones of institutional power and self-discovery 📜 Provenance 🍽️ Medium: Motion Picture 👤 By: David Frankel📍 Where I Found It: Pop culture memory, Rewatch Shelf 🍷 Tasting Notes Who doesn’t remember their first job? In the early 2000s, it was Andy Sachs moving to New YorkContinue reading “Aftertaste: The Devil Wears Prada”
Aftertaste: A Few Good Men
A reflective review of A Few Good Men, exploring honour, military code, institutional power, and moral responsibility. This iconic courtroom drama uses sharp dialogue and unforgettable performances to examine what happens when duty is separated from conscience.
Aftertaste: Glenn by Jean-Michel Basquiat
A reflective response to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Glenn at MoMA, exploring confusion, discomfort, contemporary art, and the possibility that ugliness, defiance, and emotional urgency may be part of the work’s genius.
Aftertaste: The Housekeeper and The Professor (博士の愛した数式) by Yōko Ogawa
A quiet, tender novel about memory, numbers, and the strange intimacy of being known in fragments. The Housekeeper and the Professor left me thinking about mathematics as beauty, affection as discipline, and the small, sacred rituals through which love makes itself felt.
The Aftertaste: My Friends by Fredrik Backman
My review of My Friends by Fredrik Backman — a tender literary fiction novel about friendship, trauma, and the meaning of art. This book review explores nostalgia, emotional healing, and why art belongs to everyone.
The Big Smokey Apple 