University of California Press Review by Brian Tanguay Imagine for a moment that you’re a fourteen-year-old boy living in El Salvador with your family — mother, father, and multiple younger…
Category: Genres
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…
A Walk with Frank O’Hara by Susan Aizenberg
New Mexico Review by H. L. Hix Frank O’Hara himself is not a recurring presence in Susan Aizenberg’s new volume, but the themes introduced in the title poem, which opens…
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age To AI by Yuval Noah Harari
Random House Review by Walter Cummins It turns out that Yuval Noah Harari, in Nexus, his latest book, isn’t a complete fatalist. But one has to read to the end…
The Slow Road North: How I Found Peace in an Improbable Country by Rosie Schaap
Mariner Review by Walter Cummins My own attempt at a geographic cure many years ago ended up as foolhardy, which is the common result for most who try. Canadian psychologist…
What Is It Like to Be Alive? Fourteen Attempts at an Answer
Eastover Review by Walter Cummins Despite the seeming implication of Chris Arthur’s title of this, his tenth essay collection, he is not seeking an existential generalization about an abstract ontological…
1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose
Harper Review by George Yatchisin Here’s why Francine Prose is a better writer than you or me—she can craft a sentence like, “Tony was very funny, though when you say…
Burn by Peter Heller
Knopf Review by David Starkey Like a lot of readers in these unnerving times, I’m a sucker for a dystopian novel. Imagining how things might go wrong is oddly comforting:…
Hugging My Father’s Ghost: A Memoir by Zack Rogow
Spuyten Duyvil Review by Jonas Lamb Bay-Area poet, playwright and translator Zack Rogow’s non-fiction debut playfully deploys an experimental form. Weaving together his father, Lee Rogow’s writings, imagined conversations between…