Review by Walter Cummins When I’m reviewing a book, I defer from reading other reviews until I’ve written my own to avoid influencing my reaction. But in the case of…
Tag: California Review of Books
The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings, by Geoff Dyer
Review by George Yatchisin Some lines from Robert Christgau about Lloyd Cole have always stuck with me: “So what if he can’t stop talking about books and movies and gathers…
Lucy by the Sea, by Elizabeth Strout
Review by David Starkey I’m not quite sure why I love Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, Lucy by the Sea, as well as its predecessor, Oh William! as much as I…
The Passenger and Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy
Review by David Starkey I have always thought of the novels of Cormac McCarthy as ultra-violent adventure stories written in an over-the-top style that’s sometimes mesmerizing and sometimes a bit…
I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction, by Kidada E. Williams
Blacks didn’t just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, they seized freedom and built homesteads, farms, churches, schools and communities; they tilled the soil and planted cash crops like…
Poetry Book Reviews for the Holidays
by David Starkey Since 2014, first for the Santa Barbara Independent and then for the California Review of Books, every National Poetry Month, I’ve offered one very short review of…
Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrota
Review by David Starkey I must admit that I’ve never read Election, the novel by Tom Perrota on which the 1999 film—directed by Alexander Payne and starring Reese Witherspoon and…
All Possible Histories, by Sonia Greenfield
Review by Catherine Abbey Hodges One morning when my daughter was twelve, I became aware of her studying me. After a few moments, she said, “I wonder what it’s like…
Orwell’s Roses, by Rebecca Solnit
Review by George Yatchisin Think of Rebecca Solnit’s Orwell’s Roses as a whydunit. Beyond admitting how much he influenced her as a writer/journalist/activist, Solnit was also moved to learn of…
Diary of a Void, by Emi Yagi
Review by David Starkey Emi Yagi’s Diary of a Void, winner of the Dazai Osamu Prize for a debut novel, is based on a simple yet irresistible premise. Shibata, the…