Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay Truth or spin. Fact or opinion. Journalism or propaganda. In our time, information flows in volumes impossible to keep pace with and much of it…
Category: Nonfiction
The Slap and the Salamander by Chris Arthur
Serving House Review by Walter Cummins I had my first contact with Chris Arthur several decades ago when he submitted an essay to a quarterly I was editing. We, the…
The Frenchmen, or My Life in Theory by Emily Eakin
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Emily Eakin’s life in theory began in the late 1980s when she was an eighteen-year-old sophomore at Harvard and fell “under the Frenchmen’s spell.” That’s…
The Long American Shadow
Essay by Brian Tanguay I acquired American Visions by Edward L. Ayers and Democracy In Black by Eddie S. Glaude Jr., at the same time, but had no conscious intention…
California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California by Miriam Pawel
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay As Miriam Pawel writes in the Preface to her superb history of the University of California system, the many aspects of this educational juggernaut defy…
Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century by Ece Temelkuran
Scribner Canada Review by Brian Tanguay By the reckoning of the acclaimed Turkish writer, Ece Temelkuran, there are many ways to become unhomed. Climate change, war, and rising fascism are…
American Alt: A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country by Chris Lockhart
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay At various points in this remarkable account of friendship and mental illness, I had to remind myself that I was reading nonfiction. So vivid is…
Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old by Mary Beard
Chicago Review by David Starkey If you thought the Greek and Roman classics were stuffy but serious and timeless guides to the Good, the Beautiful, and the Wise, Mary Beard…
The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh by James Lasdun
Norton Review by Walter Cummins Of course, I had heard of Alex Murdaugh. It would have been difficult not to if you followed the news after 2019. How could the…
Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance by Joe Dunthorne
Scribner Review by Walter Cummins We imagine writers doing research as individuals behind a computer screen or in a library carrel surrounded by piles of books and documents, perhaps also…