Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Don’t Close Your Teeth
Cynthia Zarin traces the rise of fascism through the diary entries of Virginia Woolf, in an essay from LARB Quarterly no. 47: “Security.”
Cynthia ZarinNov 17
Nothing Ever Happens: “Mister Squishy” and the Year of the Sentence Diagram
Hannah Smart writes about her attempt to diagram a 900-word sentence in David Foster Wallace’s “Mister Squishy,” and what the efforts taught her about human inertia and meaningless language.
Hannah SmartNov 15
- Fiction
- Literary Criticism
 Springtime for Springnuts
Grant Sharples offers a personal account of the Boss’s career and legacy in light of the new biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.”
Grant SharplesNov 11
- Film
- Music
The Secessionists of Shasta County
Nevin Kallepalli investigates political resentment in rural California, in an essay from LARB Quarterly no. 47: “Security.”
Nevin KallepalliNov 10
- LARB Lit
- Politics
Very Fine People: Charlottesville, Eight Years Later
Aniko Bodroghkozy considers recent books on the 2017 Charlottesville attack as a watershed moment in contemporary neo-Nazism.
Aniko BodroghkozyNov 4
- Politics
- History
Archive, Appendix, Hoodie, Home
Lana Lin dissects the literary and bodily significance of the appendix.
Lana Lin Nov 1
- Memoir & Essay
Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities
Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.
Rachele DiniOct 31
- SF
- Science & Technology
Pynchon’s Abundance
Travis Alexander revisits Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” arguing that it contains a prescient analysis of today’s liberal-leftist divide.
Travis AlexanderOct 30
- Fiction
- Politics
Lost Horizons
Brendan Boyle writes on the voyages beyond in “Contact” (1997) and “Alambrista!” (1977), in the newest installment of Double Feature, from the LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Brendan BoyleOct 20
One Step Removed from Ash
Vanessa Holyoak explores memory and loss after the L.A. fires, in an essay from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Vanessa HolyoakOct 19
Macchiato
A. Cerisse Cohen writes about desire in your twenties, in a short story throwback from LARB Quarterly no. 45: “Submission.”
A. Cerisse CohenOct 17
- LARB Lit
- Fiction
Life Finds an Investor
Karoline Huber discusses the phenomenon of “de-extinction” in SF and popular culture.
Karoline HuberOct 15
- SF
Dogs of the Solar Steppe
Ari Braverman writes about a woman exiled to the countryside, in a short story from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Ari BravermanOct 11
- LARB Lit
- Fiction
Crisis Makes Weird
Harrison Blackman discusses the aesthetics and politics of Greek cinema’s Weird Wave.
Harrison BlackmanOct 10
- Film
- Art & Architecture
Leah Umansky’s “Ars Poetica: The Thing Is …”
Leah Umansky offers a treatise on living among nature, in a poem from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Leah UmanskyOct 10
- LARB Lit
- Poetry
Two Poems by Rickey Laurentiis
Rickey Laurentiis dissects identity and gender in two poems from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Rickey LaurentiisOct 9
- LARB Lit
- Poetry