Archive

A Millennial’s Purgatory: On Joy Williams’s “Harrow”
The author’s first novel in 20 years is a bleak exploration of a barren eco-apocalypse.
Sam Jaffe GoldsteinNov 22, 2021
- Fiction
Living in the World: Peter Brooks on Balzac
Balzac’s great “Comédie humaine” offers a middle way between speculative fiction and autofiction.
Elena Comay del JuncoNov 21, 2021
- Literary Criticism
Born Middle-Aged: Eight Books on Steely Dan
A review of the literature on the hyperliterate jazz-rock ironists from 1970s L.A.
Colin MarshallNov 21, 2021
- Music
Letter to the Editor: Kyle Harper Responds to Monica H. Green
Kyle Harper and Monica H. Green exchange thoughts on Green’s review of Harper’s book, “Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History.”
Kyle Harper, Monica H. GreenNov 21, 2021
- History
- Pasts Imperfect
Strange Rumblings: The Prickly but Productive Friendship Between Hunter Thompson and Oscar Acosta
Hunter S. Thompson wrote cannonball prose, and it led to the wreckage of a friendship.
Peter RichardsonNov 21, 2021
- Nonfiction
The Beauty Queen Is Dead: Kwon Yeo-sun's Korean-Millennial Murder Mystery Lemon
Colin Marshall explores what goes into transforming into one's own murdered sibling in Kwon Yeo-sun's "Lemon."
Colin MarshallNov 21, 2021
Where Coca-Cola Is Synonymous with Freedom: On Margarita Gokun Silver’s “I Named My Dog Pushkin (And Other Immigrant Tales)”
Kate Tsurkan journeys through Margarita Gokun Silver’s “I Named My Dog Pushkin (And Other Immigrant Tales): Notes from a Soviet Girl on Becoming an American Woman.”
Kate TsurkanNov 20, 2021
- Memoir & Essay
Time for the Supreme Court to Look in the Mirror
Laurie L. Levenson reviews Erwin Chemerinsky’s new book, “Presumed Guilty.”
Laurie L. LevensonNov 20, 2021
- Law
On Race Like We Do
Jervey TervalonNov 20, 2021
Repetition, with a Difference: On “Deathloop”
By assimilating gameplay repetition into its story, “Deathloop” hints at resolving the dissonance between game form and narrative form.
Nathan WainsteinNov 20, 2021
- SF
The Long Half-Life of Proletarian Prose: On Michael Gold and Maxwell Bodenheim
Woody Haut works through “Michael Gold: The People’s Writer” by Patrick Chura and “Slow Vision” by Maxwell Bodenheim.
Woody HautNov 19, 2021
- Fiction
José Vadi’s “Inter State: Essays from California”
José Vadi to discuss his new collection, “Inter State: Essays from California.”
LARB Radio HourNov 19, 2021
A Socialist Alternative to Human Capital Theory?
"The Death of Human Capital?" shows how to overcome the neoliberal capture and monetizing of education.
Aashish Mehta, Christopher NewfieldNov 19, 2021
- Education
Doing Something: On Keisha N. Blain’s “Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America”
A biography of activist Fannie Lou Hamer compares her work to today’s activists.
Elwood WatsonNov 19, 2021
- Biography & Autobiography
“A Stroke of Ink Drawn by the Departing Empire”: On Suchitra Vijayan’s “Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India”
A journey of self-discovery into the complexities and sufferings of a divided nation.
MG VassanjiNov 18, 2021
- Around the World
Where Do We Draw the Line? Addressing Eminent Scholars’ Imperfect Pasts
LARB presents the fourth entry in “Pasts Imperfect,” a column that explores the impact of ancient pasts on the present.
Nandini PandeyNov 18, 2021
- Pasts Imperfect