Norton Review by David Starkey It’s appropriate that the painting on the cover of Stephen Greenblatt’s Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival may, or…
Tag: California Review of Books
Playworld by Adam Ross
Knopf Review by Walter Cummins In Adam Ross’s Playworld, Griffin Hurt, the narrator, depicts a collection of situations he lived through during his years from middle school until early high…
The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains by Pria Anand
Washington Square Review by Walter Cummins Pria Anand starts The Mind Electric by relating two childhood fascinations—her grandfather’s neurological symptoms from post-polio syndrome and, before she could read, the fantastical…
Fox by Joyce Carol Oates
Hogarth Review by Walter Cummins I hadn’t read a Joyce Carol Oates’ novel in years, an avoidance I can attribute to intimidation ny her output, which I believe is fifty-eight…
The World After Gaza: A History by Pankaj Mishra
Penguin Press Review by Brian Tanguay Pankaj Mishra is a writer of capacious erudition which he has demonstrated in eight books of non-fiction, two works of fiction, and dozens of…
Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women Who Endured Repatriation by Marla A. Ramirez
Harvard Review by Brian Tanguay Immigration has been a contentious issue in the United States for a long time, and at numerous points in American history has motivated intense passions…
Gaza: The Story of a Genocide Edited by Fatima Bhutto and Sonia Faleiro
Verso Review by Brian Tanguay A recent joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call, revealed that civilians account for 83 percent of the death toll in Gaza.…
Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous, Scandalous Story of Aimee Semple McPherson by Claire Hoffman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Review by George Yatchisin Why and how masses of people fall under the thrall of a magnetic person are the kinds of questions that sadly keep…
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s Open AI by Karen Hao
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Karen Hao’s exposé of the tensions and reversals at the multi-billion company OpenAI reads like a satire of organizational follies, a topic often mocked in…
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
Viking Review by David Starkey It’s the specter that haunts the lives of every happy, long-married couple: one of them suddenly dies. In the case of Geraldine Brooks’s memoir Memorial…