Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

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Lessons from the Xi Jinping Book Club
Some World Leaders take off their shirts and ride horses in their spare time. Others shoot hoops or play golf. Chairman Xi Jinping reads.
Ryan MitchellFeb 16, 2016
- Around the World
Half-and-Half: Iñárritu Remixes James Fenimore Cooper
"The Revenant" turns a derogatory term into an existential condition, yielding a new visual field.
Wai Chee DimockFeb 16, 2016
- Film
Evangelicals Are Losing the Battle for the Bible. And They’re Just Fine with That.
Evangelical Christianity in America is in the midst of a wholesale generational, cultural, and doctrinal transformation.
Jim HinchFeb 15, 2016
- Religion
Reading Madame Bovary in the Provinces
"Madame Bovary" — a text that, together with Camembert, Côtes du Rhône, and French kissing, may stand as one of France's most enduring cultural exports.
Birger VanwesenbeeckFeb 14, 2016
Feeling Real: On “Transparent”
Amazon's "Transparent" as seen through the lens of Maggie Nelson's novel "The Argonauts."
Caitlin WoolseyFeb 13, 2016
- Television
Super Yoncé
Dear Television on Super Bowl 50 and Beyonce
Phillip Maciak, Sarah MesleFeb 8, 2016
- Dear Television
Remembering Slavery, Again
On two cases of national amnesia about slavery — one British, one American.
Susan GillmanFeb 7, 2016
- History
Chaos Ex Machina: On the Plays of Joyelle McSweeney
On the Plays of Joyelle McSweeney.
Matthew Buckley SmithFeb 6, 2016
- Poetry
The American Action Auteur
"Thief" offers Frank a binary choice: be a miserable working stiff, or be profoundly alone, on ice, dead to the world.
Isaac ButlerFeb 5, 2016
- Film
Are We Not Kardashians?: On "The People v. OJ Simpson"
Dear Television reviews "American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson"
Phillip Maciak, Sarah MesleFeb 3, 2016
- Dear Television
On “Sisters”
"Sisters" celebrates a friendly kind of sisterhood that is all girl power and no grief.
Briallen HopperFeb 3, 2016
- Film
Louis C.K.'s "Horace and Pete," Episode 1
Dear Television on Louis CK's "Horace and Pete"
Aaron Bady, Lili LoofbourowFeb 3, 2016
- Dear Television
Journeys to the East, “Journey to the West”
WJF Jenner recounts his personal and professional journey in translating "Journey to the West."
W J F JennerFeb 3, 2016
Space Jew, or, Walter Benjamin Among the Stars
If Walter Benjamin had been quicker to flee the Nazis, he might have stood in India during the twilight years of the Raj and experienced the stars anew.
Benjamin Aldes WurgaftFeb 1, 2016
- History
- Memoir & Essay
The Philosophy of Ai Weiwei (From Andy Warhol and Back Again)
The exhibition "Andy Warhol/Ai Weiwei" is a provocative pairing of two seemingly disparate artists that reveals their underlying similarities.
Nathan SmithJan 31, 2016
- Art & Architecture
- Politics
New York Trance — Geoff Dyer and the Life of the Writer
In Dyer's repetitions and leitmotifs, we get the sense of watching a mind traveling between planes of existence.
Toby LloydJan 31, 2016