Penguin Essay by Brian Tanguay I first read Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie thirty years ago, but hadn’t thought about the book again (though in that time I have read…
Category: Fresh Looks
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917 – 2017 by Rashid Khalidi
Metropolitan Books Review by Brian Tanguay Of the many books Rashid Khalidi has written about Palestine, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is by far his most personal one. Khalidi…
That Old Country Music: stories by Kevin Barry
Doubleday Review by Brian Tanguay “It informed me that there had been others before as deranged by matters of the heart and loins as I was now.” This line from…
In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif
Penguin Review by Gabriel Tanguay Ortega At nearly 800 pages, Ahdaf Soueif’s 1992 debut novel is a rewarding undertaking, a sort of modern Anna Karenina set in mid-20th century Egypt,…
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
Knopf Review by Jinny Webber In the lead article in the New York Times morning newsletter of September 25, 2024, Steve Lohr, who covers technology and the economy for the…
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak had been on my reading list for more than a year, but the book of hers that came…
The Overstory: A Novel by Richard Powers
Norton Review by Brian Tanguay It has been some time since I finished a novel and immediately felt compelled to turn back to the first page and start over. The…
Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State by Samuel Stein
Verso Review by Brian Tanguay Many years ago I wrote a letter to my county supervisor protesting the proposed development of an avocado orchard near where my in-laws lived. I…
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara
Anchor Books Review by Gabriel Tanguay Ortega I can only begin this review by presenting my issues. I’m not sure what this book is about. Colonialism, white saviorism, the rape…
The Big Green Tent: A Novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya, Translated by Polly Gannon
Picador Review by Brian Tanguay When I read the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago as a teenager I lacked the education to fully understand it. My youthful worldview was…