A great American spy novel; six amazing, weird gangster flicks; and vibes from Tblisi

Roundup 03/31/2024

Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. For this week’s round-up, I’ve got:

• A (maybe the) great American spy novel in a Le Carré mode;

• six impossibly cool and off-beat crime flicks from one of the singular directors of our time; and

• vibe-y Balearic rhythms and fourth-world compositions from Tblisi, Georgia.

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Now, the roundup. First, as always, a dispatch from the future: