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The Law Is Not Always to Be Trusted
Columbia professor Bruce Robbins wonders what the Trump administration is so afraid of, as it deploys ICE agents to campus to detain student protesters.
All Essays
Rereading “Sula” After the Fall of Roe
Kelly Marie Coyne revisits Toni Morrison’s “Sula” in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturning.
The Light and the Poverty
Dominic Amerena examines the enduring appeal of Greece and the destination novel.
The Syrup of Wahoo Keeps Splashing Around
Gary Lippman remembers his friend, the late American author Tom Robbins.
The Paisley Underground Redux
Adam Sobsey revisits the early-1980s Los Angeles indie-pop scene.
Infinite Influence
Manuel Antonio Córdoba examines the never-ending quest for a Spanish-language David Foster Wallace.
Defining “Lynchian”
Abe Beame traces the history of a curious term.
Rembrandt and Literature
Tim Brinkhof ponders the Dutch master’s influence on literature.
Mirage Factory: Aimee Semple McPherson and 1920s L.A.
In a new installment of an ongoing series, LARB founder Tom Lutz reflects on evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and the significance of the year 1925.
Jessica Abughattas’s “Beautiful Altadena”
In the wake of January’s devastating fires around Los Angeles, LARB presents a new poem from Jessica Abughattas.
A Brand-New Map Without Us
Jack Lubin reports from Super Bowl week in New Orleans.
“Audition” by Katie Kitamura
What unravels when a stranger claims he is your son? Take a front row seat for an exploration of power, performance, and identity in the LARB Book Club Spring 2025 pick “Audition” by Katie Kitamura.
The Irishman and the Empty Man: The Biden Years On-Screen, Part One
In the first installment of a quarterly series, Brendan Boyle and Adam Nayman use two films as a lens on the Biden years.
Who Shall and Shall Not Have a Place in the World?
In the seventh essay in the Legacies of Eugenics series, Lily Hu asks whether the racialist and eugenicist roots of statistics can be cordoned off from “proper” science.
The Power of the Moving Image
Peter B. Kaufman argues that video has become our dominant cultural medium, yet we lack reliable archives for the audiovisual record.
Points of Entry
Mary Turfah writes on Lebanon and broken glass in an online release from the LARB Quarterly issue no. 44, “Pressure.”
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