Deborah Friedell

London

Assistant Editor at London Review of Books

An American at the London Review of Books

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Articles

Delete the workforce

4 weeks ago | lrb.co.uk | Kate Conger |Ryan Mac |Walter Isaacson |Deborah Friedell

Elon Musk bought Twitter because he loved it. He loved tweeting poop emojis at dawn; he loved tweeting masturbation jokes at dusk. He loved that he had more Twitter followers than almost anyone else, though it galled that Barack Obama and Justin Bieber had more. While other celebrity social media accounts were often so sanitised that they smelled of chlorine – ‘Happy Tuesday everybody! Stay positive!’ – at least no one could claim that @elonmusk had ever been focus-grouped.
Jamelle Bouie, Deborah Friedell and Adam Shatz

Nov 13, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Jamelle Bouie |Deborah Friedell |Adam Shatz

Your browser does not support the audio element. Adam Shatz is joined by Jamelle Bouie and Deborah Friedell to pick through the results and implications of Trump’s victory. The US has a booming economy of high wages and nearly full employment, yet economic discontent, particularly around inflation, has been one of the more popular explanations for the election result.
Reading J.D. Vance

Oct 16, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Deborah Friedell

In the first pages of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (2016), J.D. Vance admits that he’s ‘especially skilful’ at charming older men. His mother has had many boyfriends, as well as five husbands, and Vance spent his childhood ‘navigating various father figures’.
At the Republican National Convention: Day Four

Jul 19, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | ANDREW O’HAGAN |Deborah Friedell

Your browser does not support the audio element. It’s the final day of the Republican National Convention. Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell dissect Trump’s marathon acceptance speech and ask what a second term could look like.
At the Republican National Convention: Day Three

Jul 19, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | ANDREW O’HAGAN |Deborah Friedell

Your browser does not support the audio element. At day three of the Republican National Convention, Andrew O’Hagan and Deborah Friedell discuss what a second Trump presidency would mean for American foreign policy. They compare notes on J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and reflect on his keynote speech.
At the Republican National Convention: Day Two

Jul 18, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | ANDREW O’HAGAN |Deborah Friedell

Your browser does not support the audio element. Andrew O’Hagan and Deborah Friedell return to the Republican National Convention. They explore the second day’s theme, ‘Make America Safe Again’, and discuss how this convention compares to the last one Andrew attended, the RNC in 2004.
At the Republican National Convention: Day One

Jul 17, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | ANDREW O’HAGAN |Deborah Friedell

Your browser does not support the audio element. Andrew O'Hagan and Deborah Friedell report on day one of the Republican National Convention. They react to Trump's choice of vice president and reflect on the key note speech by Sean O'Brien, the first time the head of the Teamsters' Union has ever addressed the RNC.
Deborah Friedell

Jun 26, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Deborah Friedell

Robert F. Kennedy Jr was nine years old on 22 November 1963 when his mother told him that ‘a bad man shot Uncle Jack.’ He was fourteen, asleep at boarding school, when his father was assassinated at a hotel in Los Angeles. He became used to the sound of people weeping everywhere he went, no matter what he did.
Put on your clown suit

May 15, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Percival L. Everett |Deborah Friedell

In 1867, Mark Twain went to Europe aboard the Quaker City, the ‘first luxury cruise in American history’. He was underwhelmed by the Titians in the Doge’s Palace – ‘there is nothing tangible about these imaginary portraits, nothing that I can grasp and take a living interest in’ – but awestruck by his tour guide. The man appeared to be – was it possible? – a ‘cultivated Negro’. He even knew the definition of ‘Renaissance’. He was born in South Carolina, of slave parents.
Deborah Friedell and Adam Thirlwell

Feb 28, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Deborah Friedell |Adam Thirlwell

Your browser does not support the audio element. When Deborah Friedell and Adam Thirlwell met twenty years ago, they started a discussion about Jewish identity they are still puzzling over today. Revisiting Philip Roth’s The Counterlife (1986), an archetypally American author’s take on British antisemitism and the escapist allure of aliyah, Adam and Deborah discuss the nuances of Jewish experience and novel-writing across the Atlantic.