COLA 2019 Installation image of 5 Seconds of Dreaming by Katie Grinnan for COLA 2019; Installation image of A Legacy of Loss by Jenny Yurshansky, photographs by Jeff McLane, courtesy of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.

MOST READ

Blowing the Philosopher’s Fuses: Michel Foucault’s LSD Trip in the Valley of Death

James Penner takes a trip through “Foucault in California” by Simeon Wade, which chronicles the day when a great French philosopher blew his mind....

The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

Reading the Rainbow: A Pride Reading List

Sarah Neilson invites us to read the rainbow in a broad and diverse LGBTQIA+ reading list for Pride Month....

Cruising for Sex, Cruising the Political: Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime”

Michael Nava reviews Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.”...

The Search for What Makes Us Human: The Killer Ape Account of the Mid-20th Century

Melinda Baldwin

Does violence make humans unique? Melinda Baldwin reviews Erika Lorraine Milam’s “Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America.”...

Navigating the Dark Corners: Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories”

Claire Kim looks at the alluring, dark tales in Karen Russell’s new short story collection, “Orange World and Other Stories.”...

The Quest for B. Cooper

David MacDougall

On the trail of a mysterious big-game hunter in colonial-era East Africa....

Mel Brooks, Boomer’s Comedian

Mel Brooks looked for boundaries to cross and conventions to subvert, but his best work rarely came from crossing social and political boundaries....

The Soul in the Machine: On Peter Bebergal’s “Strange Frequencies”

Diana Walsh Pasulka

Diana Walsh Pasulka reviews Peter Bebergal’s "Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural."...

Love and Death: On Jericho Brown’s “The Tradition”

Richie Hofmann - June 18, 2019

Richie Hofmann considers “The Tradition” by Jericho Brown....

AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION

All the World’s a Stage: On Yukio Mishima’s “Star”

Jan Wilm - June 18, 2019

Jan Wilm reviews Yukio Mishima's "Star," recently released by New Directions in a translation by Sam Bett....

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "Tell-Tale Hearts"

Jane Hu - June 17, 2019

For Dear TV, Jane Hu and Phil Maciak put Big Little Lies, season two, episode two under surveillance—it's disappointing....

RELIGION, HISTORY

An Endless Crusade

Udi Greenberg - June 17, 2019

Giuliana Chamedes's "A Twentieth-Century Crusade" is a work of tremendous ambitions and impressive panoramic scope....

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ALL ARTICLES

Love and Death: On Jericho Brown’s “The Tradition”

Richie Hofmann considers “The Tradition” by Jericho Brown....

AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION

All the World’s a Stage: On Yukio Mishima’s “Star”

Jan Wilm - June 18, 2019

Jan Wilm reviews Yukio Mishima's "Star," recently released by New Directions in a translation by Sam Bett....

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "Tell-Tale Hearts"

For Dear TV, Jane Hu and Phil Maciak put Big Little Lies, season two, episode two under surveillance—it's disappointing....

RELIGION, HISTORY

An Endless Crusade

Udi Greenberg - June 17, 2019

Giuliana Chamedes's "A Twentieth-Century Crusade" is a work of tremendous ambitions and impressive panoramic scope....

FICTION, GENDER & SEXUALITY

The Scourge of Himpathy

Tatiana Dubin - June 17, 2019

Rachel Cline’s new novel takes on the psychology and politics of the #MeToo movement....

PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY, MEMOIR & ESSAY

Blowing the Philosopher’s Fuses: Michel Foucault’s LSD Trip in the Valley of Death

James Penner - June 17, 2019

James Penner takes a trip through “Foucault in California” by Simeon Wade, which chronicles the day when a great French philosopher blew his mind....

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, HISTORY, CULTURAL STUDIES

The Search for What Makes Us Human: The Killer Ape Account of the Mid-20th Century

Melinda Baldwin

Does violence make humans unique? Melinda Baldwin reviews Erika Lorraine Milam’s “Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America.”...

The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh - June 16, 2019

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY

Jewish Identity on the Move

David Lipset - June 16, 2019

David Lipset reviews two new essay collections about Jewish identity, "Freud and Monotheism" and "Jews and the Ends of Theory."...

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION

A Little Private Space: A Conversation with Heike Geissler

Kate Durbin speaks to Heike Geissler, author of the autofictional novel “Seasonal Associate,” translated from German by Katy Derbyshire....

LARB LIT, POETRY

Concerning the Meaning Molecule in Poetry

Brenda Hillman - June 15, 2019

"Long ago a man told me, If you write poetry / keep your subjects small;" Brenda Hillman's poem "Concerning the Meaning Molecule in Poetry."...

Parallel Deterioration: On Brian Evenson’s “Song for the Unraveling of the World”

Nathan Scott McNamara

In “Song for the Unraveling of the World,” Brian Evenson renders the world as a place of infinite and paralyzing delusion....

AROUND THE WORLD, NONFICTION

The Quest for B. Cooper

David MacDougall - June 14, 2019

On the trail of a mysterious big-game hunter in colonial-era East Africa....

GENDER & SEXUALITY

Reading the Rainbow: A Pride Reading List

Sarah Neilson - June 14, 2019

Sarah Neilson invites us to read the rainbow in a broad and diverse LGBTQIA+ reading list for Pride Month....

Cannibal

Anna Journey - June 14, 2019

"I’ve been thinking a lot about cannibals lately. Fairy tale cannibals. Biblio-cannibals." Anna Journey's essay appears in LARB's Occult Issue....

FICTION, MEMOIR & ESSAY

No Filters: On Kathleen Collins’s “Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary”

Trisha R. Thomas

Trisha R. Thomas is inspired by “Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary,” the posthumous collection of Kathleen Collins’s writing edited by Nina Lorez Collins....

RELIGION, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The Soul in the Machine: On Peter Bebergal’s “Strange Frequencies”

Diana Walsh Pasulka - June 13, 2019

Diana Walsh Pasulka reviews Peter Bebergal’s "Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural."...

Navigating the Dark Corners: Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories”

Claire Kim - June 13, 2019

Claire Kim looks at the alluring, dark tales in Karen Russell’s new short story collection, “Orange World and Other Stories.”...

All Included

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ — Ghosts? Alida said. In ...

MEMOIR & ESSAY, HISTORY, GENDER & SEXUALITY

Cruising for Sex, Cruising the Political: Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime”

Michael Nava - June 12, 2019

Michael Nava reviews Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.”...

FILM, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Mel Brooks, Boomer’s Comedian

Chris Yogerst - June 12, 2019

Mel Brooks looked for boundaries to cross and conventions to subvert, but his best work rarely came from crossing social and political boundaries....

Mother of Cups

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ Have you seen Buffy? Her ...

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Deana Lawson’s Curtains

Megan N. Liberty - June 11, 2019

Megan Liberty appreciates Deana Lawson's work as well as her new book, "Deana Lawson: An Aperture Monograph."...

AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION, MEMOIR & ESSAY

Writing About Binyavanga Wainaina

Raksha Vasudevan - June 11, 2019

On the Kenyan author’s rich — and discomfiting — intellectual legacy....

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FEATURED ARTIST

COLA 2019

COLA 2019

COLA 2019 is an exhibition at The Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery featuring new work by Enrique Castrejon, Juan Capistrán, Kim Fisher, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Katie Grinnan, Alice Könitz, Olga Koumoundouros, Sandy Rodriguez, Stephanie Taylor, Peter Wu and Jenny Yurshansky. These artists are the recipients of the 2019 City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowship for visual arts. The fellowship provides each artist with $10,000 to produce a new body of work, premiered at the COLA 2019 exhibition. The show runs until July 14, 2019.

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LARB AV

John Waters: Holding Court with the King of Filth

John Waters discusses his new memoir "Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder."......

LARB Radio Hour: Commitment and Trust, Past and Present, with Erica Jong and Susan Choi

The 58th Venice Biennale Exhibition: Meet Curator Ralph Rugoff

The LA Times Book Prize Winners: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Carl Phillips

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