Crimson staff writer
Victoria Zhuang
Latest Content
Arts Vanity Issue: Hello, Goodbye: Five Local Pilgrimages in the Spirit of Crimson Arts
Staff Writer Victoria Zhuang ’15 is the outgoing Books Exec. She would like to be present at a traditional Japanese tea ceremony someday.
Distinguished ‘Class Distinctions’ Offers New Perspectives on Dutch Art and Society
The Museum of Fine Arts' latest exhibit, “Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer,” offers a nuanced investigation into the rise of a bourgeoisie created by global trade and a sympathetic meditation on striving to improve, maintain, or accept one’s class identity.
Neuman’s Latest Don’t Quite ‘Do’
Neuman's writing is erratic yet vigorous. There is an unsettling coldness to his prose, a sharpness of cut that proves to be both very refreshing in some moments but is, in many others, unfulfilling.
Boston Ballet Premieres "Lady of the Camellias"
The Boston Ballet premiered the twentieth anniversary run of Val Caniparoli's "Lady of the Camellias" at the Boston Opera House last Thursday, to poignant effect.
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bad Movie
An examination of the art of the film review—in verse.
Staff Rec: 'Higher Gossip'
Arts Board Staff Writers tell about the stories of the books that have changed them. In this installment, Victoria Zhuang explores her relationship with John Updike's "Higher Gossip."
In 'Different Bed,' Jemc Falters
Jac Jemc’s recent collection of stories is the kind that qualifies for applause at intervals only. The title, “A Different Bed Every Time,” is perhaps too appropriate for its own good.
Ford's Newest a 'Frank' Success
Absence, omission, and forgetting turn out to be the true center of the book; there is no external destination to be striven for, no climax and ending to be buttoned on this tale.
MSNBC Host Advocates Political Inclusivity
Nearly 400 attendees crowded into the Radcliffe Institute’s Knafel Center to hear Harris-Perry’s talk, given as this year’s Maurine and Robert Rothschild Lecture.
'Kill the Messenger' a True-to-Life Portrayal of Journalist Gary Webb
Director Michael Cuesta's "Kill the Messenger" tells the true story of how American journalist Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) wrote an article in the 1990s exposing corruption in the US government, tasted fame, then paid for it.
In 'Betrayers,' Bezmozgis Stays True to Literary Tradition
To read a novel like David Bezmozgis’s “The Betrayers” in this mighty age of American literary mass-production is like getting to nibble on one of those small, precious slabs of black-market chocolate in “1984.” Aha! is the feeling: here is a book that recalls what fiction can do! Its quality is concentrated in every part, not scattered about and diluted.
"Dan" Disappointing
Yes, it is worthwhile to read this feisty little novel, which was written by Joanna Ruocco and published by an innovative women’s literature group called Dorothy, A Publishing Project. But the worth may not be in its pleasure so much as its pain.
Panelists Weigh Implications of Cyprus Natural Gas Reserves
The discovery of natural gas reserves around Cyprus raises both hope and concern regarding relations among countries in the Middle East and Europe, panelists said Thursday at the Center for European Studies.
"Skeleton Twins" Both Grim and Comedic
There are a lot of dissonant notes in “The Skeleton Twins,” but at some point the film, like its troubled characters, does begin to achieve a difficult harmony. Johnson’s suggests how, by sharing our burdens in mutual sympathy and good humor, we just may have the chance to keep each other afloat.
Portrait of an Artist: David Hilliard
For Hilliard, who has backgrounds in theater and film, photography has a “magic” related to but unique from that of cinema and stage. His paneled photographs, which show glimpses of human scenes in progress, feel like a spectacle unfolding at the viewer’s pace.
