The following is a conversation between California Review of Books co-editors David Starkey and Brian Tanguay. David Starkey: It’s been a couple of years now since we started the California…
Category: Essays & Interviews
The Magician by Colm Tóbín
Review by David Starkey We are clearly meant to sympathize with Thomas Mann, the title character of Colm Tóbín’s novel The Magician. A gay youth trapped in an uptight heterosexual…
Fire Island: A Century in the Life of an American Paradise by Jack Parlett
Review Essay by Walter Cummins Jack Parlett made his initial visit to the gay village of Cherry Grove on Fire Island in 2017 with his friend Celine by walking a…
Rooting Interests: A Roger Angell Appreciation
By George Yatchisin I can be assured I’ve been reading Roger Angell for nearly 45 years, as my copy of his Five Seasons, is inscribed 1978 and “Merry Christmas” from…
Drive My Car, a movie by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, based on a story by Haruki Murakami
Essay by Walter Cummins Creating a three-hour movie based on a short story that takes only 26 minutes to read may sound like an act of folly. But the Japanese…
Black Writers, White Gaze
by Jinny Webber Yaa Gyasi’s essay in the March 20, 2021 book section of the Guardian throws out a challenge. Author of the new novel, Transcendent Kingdom, Gyasi describes her…