Francine Prose

Francine Prose argues that Donald Trump's demolition of the White House East Wing and plans for a $400 million ballroom and underground security complex symbolize more than questionable architectural taste. She presents the project as part of Trump's broader effort to bypass Congress, weaken institutions and consolidate personal power. A federal appeals court ruled that the renovation requires congressional approval, but Trump plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. Prose contends that defending the White House's historic character is inseparable from resisting the erosion of democratic norms.

Francine Prose argues that the United States’ 250th anniversary is worth celebrating because its democratic experiment has endured despite a history of dispossession, slavery and inequality. She fears, however, that Donald Trump and his allies have weakened press freedom, free speech, due process and fair elections, replacing an inclusive national celebration with militarism and a divisive MAGA rally. Prose calls for Independence Day events to reaffirm the Bill of Rights and confront detention, war and other policies that conflict with democratic ideals, while hoping the country can preserve and strengthen its democracy for another 250 years.

Francine Prose praises Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas for defining the human qualities AI lacks and warning that the technology could be used to maximize profit, manipulate privacy, control access to jobs and services, and deepen inequality. She argues that the pope is not rejecting AI itself but opposing its use for political repression, economic exploitation and the creation of new forms of servitude. Prose contrasts the encyclical’s emphasis on compassion, education, justice and human dignity with Silicon Valley dismissals of the church’s expertise, warning that AI’s harms are already affecting employment prospects. She concludes that the real danger is not machines producing great literature, but a society that no longer values uniquely human stories and experiences unless they can be monetized.

The shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner has prompted Americans to alternate between conspiracy theories, outrage, exhaustion and emotional numbness. The incident reflects a broader collapse of trust in government and public institutions after repeated alleged deceptions, evasive official statements and ongoing wars and scandals. Prose argues that political and mass violence has become normalized as deaths accumulate across the United States and the Middle East, leaving people increasingly unable to process grief or distinguish credible information from manipulation.

Five-year-old Ecuadorian asylum seeker Liam Conejo Ramos was detained with his father by ICE while returning from school in Minnesota and transferred to a facility in Dilley, Texas. Reports of his deteriorating condition prompted public protests and intervention by Democratic representatives; federal judge Fred Biery ruled the detention unconstitutional, leading to their release. Francine Prose condemns the treatment of Liam and other detained children, links it to broader abuses by the Trump administration’s immigration system, and calls for the release of children still held and a fundamental overhaul of U.S. asylum and detention policy.

Francine Prose argues that violence and repression by federal agents in Minneapolis represent the central political story facing the United States and a real threat of authoritarian takeover. She urges the public and media not to be distracted by weather, scandals or political gaffes, highlights the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and condemns alleged falsehoods about the victims. Prose calls for sustained solidarity with Minneapolis and organized, nonviolent resistance, potentially including a national shutdown, to prevent repression from spreading.

Afghan refugee and Bard College student Ali Faqirzada was arrested by ICE after an asylum interview despite having assisted US and NATO projects in Afghanistan and demonstrating credible fear of Taliban persecution. He remains detained at the GEO Group-operated Delaney Hall facility, where access to books, water and halal food is reportedly restricted. Bard College, New York officials, local communities and religious leaders have called for his release, but new US policies suspending asylum approvals and restricting Afghan immigration have complicated his case. The treatment of Faqirzada is presented as an unjust collective response to a separate crime and as evidence of broader failures in the Trump administration's refugee policy.

Francine Prose argues that Donald Trump should be uniting and reassuring Americans after Charlie Kirk’s killing but is instead exploiting the tragedy to stoke fear and attack the perceived radical left. She condemns political violence and the celebration of Kirk’s death, while arguing that the killing should reinforce the importance of free speech even for highly offensive speakers. The article warns that selective mourning, censorship, punishment of critics, and demands for obedience are weakening democratic protections, and calls for equal recognition of all victims of political and gun violence, including Melissa Hortman and wounded Colorado students.

Francine Prose argues that Donald Trump’s criticism of Smithsonian exhibits for emphasizing how harmful slavery was is part of a broader effort to whitewash American history. She contends that proposed restrictions on museum exhibits and educational materials would erase slavery, Indigenous dispossession, segregation, civil-rights struggles and other abuses, making it impossible to understand present-day inequalities. Prose warns that suppressing historical facts is intended to undermine belief in truth and encourage submission to authoritarian narratives, with potentially dangerous consequences for collective memory and democratic accountability.

The Los Angeles wildfires are presented as evidence that climate change is already an escalating global crisis rather than a distant threat. The fires are linked to warming conditions, alongside disasters in other regions, while political leaders and media are criticized for focusing on local preparedness, partisan blame and short-lived coverage instead of emissions and fossil-fuel dependence. The column argues for broad, coordinated climate action and warns that the suffering in Los Angeles foreshadows future disasters elsewhere.

Francine Prose condemns the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson while arguing that the outrage surrounding it reflects deep public anger over the US healthcare system. She describes insurers’ alleged denial of treatments, high costs and damaging effects on patients, contrasting these practices with the growing affordability gap between ordinary patients and wealthy consumers. Thompson, she argues, was not personally responsible for the system’s failures but became a visible symbol of them. The author calls for serious reflection and movement toward universal healthcare, while rejecting assassination as a legitimate response to institutional injustice.

Francine Prose describes intense anxiety as Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 US presidential election appears increasingly likely. She argues that, despite the flaws and inequalities of American democracy, the alternative represented by dictatorship would be far worse, citing historical authoritarianism, political repression, racism, misogyny and the normalization of violence. The campaign's rhetoric on immigration and minorities, media owners' financial interests, weakened institutional trust and growing social divisions reinforce her fear that the country could become more authoritarian and less democratic.

Francine Prose imagines how Columbia president Minouche Shafik might have responded to hostile congressional questioning about Gaza-related campus unrest. She argues that the war, which the US government partly funds and supports, is the fundamental cause of tensions at universities and that Congress is improperly using those tensions to police academic institutions. Prose defends free speech and university autonomy, condemns antisemitism and anti-Palestinian violence, criticizes inflammatory remarks by lawmakers Tim Walberg and Lindsey Graham, and contends that campus rancor will subside when the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza end.

Annie Ernaux’s short memoir The Young Man recounts her affair with a man 30 years younger, identified as A, and uses the relationship to examine sex, social class, age, time, memory and power. Unlike some of her earlier accounts of love affairs, Ernaux presents herself as being in a dominant position and reconnecting with her own youth. The relationship ultimately becomes a catalyst for writing about her illegal abortion and ends around the time that book is completed. The review admires Ernaux’s characteristic honesty and clarity but finds the book too slight to serve as the best introduction to her work, recommending The Years instead.

Houston plans to convert libraries in some of its lowest-performing and poorest public schools into multipurpose rooms used to isolate disruptive students. Francine Prose argues that removing libraries and reducing children’s access to books will worsen reading outcomes, especially for poor students and students of color, rather than address educational failure. She connects the policy to broader efforts to centralize school control and censor student reading, including actions associated with Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Prose calls for bookmobiles to serve schools without libraries and questions what will happen to the displaced books.

Francine Prose argues that Elizabeth Gilbert’s decision to indefinitely postpone The Snow Forest, a novel set in mid-20th-century Siberia, was misguided despite being motivated by concern for Ukrainians suffering from Russia’s invasion. She contends that depicting Russia or writing about conflict does not amount to endorsing Putin, particularly because the novel reportedly concerns resistance to Soviet oppression. Prose warns that yielding to social-media criticism from people who have not read a work creates a dangerous precedent for censorship and could make literature subject to public referendums. She defends literature’s role in confronting human cruelty and conflict, and argues that public anger should target powerful institutions and actors responsible for actual harm rather than writers, teachers or librarians.

Francine Prose argues that SpaceX’s spectacular rocket launches reveal the social and environmental irresponsibility of billionaire wealth. She criticizes Elon Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars while local communities near the Texas launch site contend with debris, damaged property, pollution, noise and disruption to wildlife. The Starship explosion on 20 April 2023 intensified concerns that regulators and major news organizations have underplayed the consequences of the program. Prose concludes that heavily taxing the super-rich could redirect resources from costly vanity projects toward poverty reduction, education, housing, healthcare and the broader crises facing Earth.

Two unrelated incidents—in which Ralph Yarl was shot after mistakenly approaching the wrong Kansas City home and Kaylin Gillis was killed when her friends’ car entered Kevin Monahan’s driveway—illustrate a broader culture of fear, paranoia and impulsive gun violence in the United States. The shootings are discussed in the context of racial tension, political polarization, substance use, violent media and permissive gun access. Reducing the violence, the piece argues, requires more than reporting individual crimes: Americans must challenge the belief that strangers are threats and learn to respond with caution and assistance rather than shooting first.

Francine Prose argues that Roald Dahl’s books should not be rewritten after his death, even though Dahl held bigoted views and some of his language is offensive. She says the revisions—which altered references to appearance, race and gender and added explanatory, diversity-focused passages—are clumsy, patronizing and likely to alienate children. Rather than erasing troubling language, adults should explain its historical context and potential harm. Prose suggests the edits were driven partly by commercial rebranding, including Netflix’s interest in Dahl’s work, and draws a parallel between progressive and right-wing efforts to control children’s reading. The backlash, including opposition from Rishi Sunak, helped ensure that the original versions would remain available.