Government & Politics

In A.M. Homes' suburbia, yawning sinkholes will suddenly open up in front lawns, swallowing cliched plotlines and opening portals to other dimensions. In her latest novel, she serves up an old-fashioned American story that's more Norman Bates than Norman Rockwell.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg has been puzzling over President Obama's performance in the presidential debate last week. Looking at who the candidates were addressing their answers to shows that Romney was doing something unusual, he says.

Junot Diaz's electric new collection of short stories centers around Yunior, a macho yet mournful Dominican-American man. In these stories about love, lust and infidelity, a good man is hard to find — and when he is found, he's always in bed with someone else.

John Powers reviews the author's memoir of his time in hiding — the result of a fatwah calling for his murder after the publication of The Satanic Verses.

Showtime's Homeland, which swept this year's Emmy Awards, returns this weekend -- as does another Showtime drama, Dexter. Critic David Bianculli says there's a rich bounty of returning series -- and Homeland is the "most topical and meaningful drama on television."

Rian Johnson's action-thriller can't dodge the frustrating elements of most time-travel tales, but the film's characters, performances and stylization add up to an experience that critic David Edelstein believes is the right amount of happy and tragic.

Journalist Robert Draper's article for The Atlantic traces how the redistricting process has been manipulated for electoral gain. It has created increasingly solid Republican or Democratic congressional districts, which has led to more representatives who are unwilling to compromise, Draper tells Fresh Air.

In his new book, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind, author David Cay Johnston examines the fees that companies have added over the years that have made bills incrementally larger. He tells Fresh Air that companies are misusing language to "confuse people."

The Guardian's Gahaith Abdul-Ahad calls the Syrian battle fluid and complicated. "There is chaos, there is no military planning, there is no organization," he tells Fresh Air. He reported for the PBS Frontline documentary The Battle for Syria, which airs Tuesday.

Jeffrey Toobin's new book, The Oath, explores how President Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts are at odds over constitutional law. Toobin tells Fresh Air that while Obama likes precedent when it comes to the Supreme Court, Roberts "wants to move the court in a dramatically new direction."

Writer Michael Lewis was given unusual access to the president for six months for an article for Vanity Fair. Lets tells Fresh Air that he found a "weird disjuncture between his powers and his powerlessness."

New York Times Washington bureau chief David Leonhardt compares Obama's and Romney's tax plans, Medicare plans and conflicting claims on whether Americans are better off now than four years ago. "I think it's fair to say the typical American household isn't better off, but the country is," he tells Fresh Air.

In his new book, The Parties Versus the People, the former Republican congressman says party leaders have too much control over who runs for office, what bills make it to the floor and how lawmakers vote.

Michael Kranish and Scott Helman's biography of Mitt Romney — The Real Romney — is now out in paperback with a new afterword. The authors discuss Romney's shift to the right, his faith and his recent comment that no one's ever asked to see his birth certificate.

In this week's New Yorker, the journalist details how the electoral climate since the Citizens United ruling in 2010 has negatively affected the Obama campaign's appeal to Democratic donors. Mayer tells Fresh Air that Obama has to make a "terrible choice between his principles and politics."

Journalist Seth Rosenfeld spent three decades pursuing government documents about the FBI's undercover operation in Berkeley, Calif., during the student protest movements in the '60s. His new book details how the FBI "used dirty tricks to stifle dissent on campus" and influenced Ronald Reagan's politics.

Thirty-three states now have voter ID laws requiring identification for voting. Some new laws requiring photo ID are being challenged in court or reviewed by the Justice Department. One supporter says these laws will prevent fraud. A critic says the claims are overblown.

The Republican vice presidential pick wants to take another look at programs like Medicare and Social Security. Fresh Air's resident linguist parses the word "entitlement" in its political and nonpolitical contexts.

In The Long Road to Antietam, historian Richard Slotkin traces how both Northern and Southern strategies changed in the summer of 1862, when both sides committed to an all-out total war, and Lincoln squared off against Gen. George McClellan.

Keegan spent his life studying war, but he never fought in one and described himself as more or less a pacifist. The British military historian, who died last week at age 78, chronicled the history of warfare from Alexander the Great to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.