Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Calisthenics at Thomas Duncan Gallery
Rachel Elizabeth Jones writes about Matt Paweski's show "Calisthenics" at Thomas Duncan's space on Melrose.
Rachel Elizabeth JonesOct 17, 2015
- Art & Architecture
Portrait of a Press: tNY.Press Breaks the Rules of Genre and Publishing
tNY.Press
Isla McKettaOct 17, 2015
- Cultural Studies
Freaks of the Industry: “Dope”
"Dope" was a Sundance crowd pleaser and the object of a bidding war.
J. D. ConnorOct 17, 2015
- Film
How Nepal’s Constitution Got Queered
When Nepal’s president signed the country’s new constitution on September 20, the country became only the 10th in the world to enshrine specific protections for LGBT people in its constitution.
Kyle KnightOct 14, 2015
- Around the World
Empty Beaches: In Search of Australia’s Fictional Private Eyes
September 12 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of a little-known Australian crime movie, The Empty Beach.
Andrew NetteOct 14, 2015
- Film
- Noir
Novels Don’t Lie: A Conversation Between Robert Kloss and Colin Winnette
As a culture and as a literature we lose something when the poets and storytellers abdicate the telling of the national myth to historians and academics.
Colin Winnette, Robert KlossOct 14, 2015
- Fiction
A New Golden Age Part III: The Basic Income Guarantee
The Basic Income Guarantee has an ancient pedigree, and it gives every citizen enough money to survive.
Tom StreithorstOct 13, 2015
- Politics
Adrian Piper’s Critical Instigation
"The challenge Adrian Piper models for us, her critical instigation, is to live in the present experimentally."
Tavia Nyong’oOct 11, 2015
- Literary Criticism
She’s the Boss
Doc McStuffins is the Olivia Pope of children’s television.
W. Kamau BellOct 10, 2015
- Humor
Living Space: Socialist Blocks as Homes
Socialist blocks as they stand today are not dead and decaying. They are regularly remolded by the changing communities that inhabit them.
Mirela IvanovaOct 10, 2015
- Art & Architecture
- Memoir & Essay
E. L. Doctorow’s Postmodernist Style
When was it that we read an academic essay devoted to E. L. Doctorow's fiction?
Adam KellyOct 9, 2015
- Fiction
Refugee or Migrant
Should we call them refugees or migrants? It is now common practice in Europe to enforce a heavy-handed, arbitrary categorization of those fleeing war.
Helen MackreathOct 9, 2015
- Around the World
All Borderlands Are Ghost Lands
In the end, all borderlands are ghost lands, and every border is painted in blood. Many of those fleeing today, caught in their exhaustion and despair on our television screens, carry with them similar stories.
Ranbir SidhuOct 9, 2015
- Around the World
“The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Saigon, 1975—following a double agent from a captain in the South Vietnamese army, this thrilling spy novel explores extreme politics and the enduring legacies of the Vietman War. Check out our Fall 2015 pick for the LARB Book Club: “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Oct 7, 2015
A New Golden Age Part II: The Path to Prosperity
Who is better off: you or your parents when they were your age?
Tom StreithorstOct 6, 2015
- Politics
The Aphasia Book Club
The Echo Park Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library is home to the only aphasia book club in North America — and maybe the world.
Louise SteinmanOct 5, 2015
- Memoir & Essay