Liveright Review by David Starkey Originally published in 1976, Peter Hujar’s Portraits in Life and Death might well be called Portraits of Life in Death or Portraits of Death in…
Tag: California Review of Books
The Prelude by William Wordsworth
Brandeis Review by David Starkey The subtitle to this edition of William Wordsworth’s The Prelude provides a hint of just how jam-packed the book is with ancillary material. “Newly Edited…
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
Flatiron Review by Walter Cummins The world of this novel is ominously dystopian—constant rain pounding a city of unmoored, vulnerable buildings, displaced people fearful of being flooded out of threatened…
The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East by Eugene Rogan
Basic Books Essay by Brian Tanguay Many of the books and articles I’ve read about the Middle East during the past year make passing reference to the Ottoman Empire, often…
The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay In early March 2022, at Berenike, a barren spot on the shores of the Red Sea, a team of archaeologists made several remarkable finds. From…
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Biblioasis Review by Walter Cummins I must admit that throughout my initial reading of this novel I fell for Burnet’s ruse, believing I was really engaging with his translation of…
A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman by Robert Hilburn
Hachette Review by George Yatchisin A tunesmith with a con, not a song, in his heart, Randy Newman is a quintessential American composer. And like America, what a bill of goods…
Feint of Heart: Art Writings, 1982-2002 by Dave Hickey
David Zwirner Review by David Starkey Like Greil Marcus writing about music, or Jed Perl and the late Peter Schjeldahl writing about art, Dave Hickey’s essays are interesting whether or…
Rental House by Weike Wang
Riverhead Review by George Yatchisin You’re a mere five pages into Weike Wang’s masterful novel Rental House when she does this to you, as her married couple main characters, one…
The Blue-Cliff Record by David Hinton
Shambhala Review by David Starkey Those of us who are not practicing Buddhists, but are still “Zen-curious,” can turn for modest enlightenment to classics like Alan Watts’ The Way of…