Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Recognizing Complicity
"Modernism was not an idea, not a singular and well-formed position. The multiplicity and heterogeneity of its dimensions have to be addressed."
Johanna Drucker May 3, 2015
- Art & Architecture
- History
The Sound and the Fury
On Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's film 'The Tribe'
Lennard J. DavisMay 2, 2015
- Film
Thomas Cromwell, a Man for All Treasons
That a public man such as Thomas Cromwell can be understood so differently by writers acting in good faith is due to a number of factors: his distance from us in time, our incomplete record of his correspondence, the nature of politics, and the nature of observation.
Josh EmmonsMay 1, 2015
- Fiction
- History
Radio Hour: Nikki Giovanni, Ego Plum, and “Girl in a Band”
Tom Lutz's interview with legendary poet Nikki Giovanni, a discussion of Kim Gordon's memoir "Girl in a Band," and much more.
LARB AVApr 30, 2015
Daniel Fuchs: From Proletariat Williamsburg to Criss-Crossing Noir
Woody Haut looks back on the life and career of Daniel Fuchs.
Woody HautApr 30, 2015
- Noir
The Marriage Plot: Three Versions of “Wolf Hall”
The story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn has been told and retold from hundreds of angles. So why did Hilary Mantel’s version catch fire?
Laurie WinerApr 30, 2015
- Fiction
- Television
Forty Years After the Fall — Vietnam War Lit in 2015
A reflection on war literature 40 years after the Fall of Saigon.
Matt GallagherApr 30, 2015
- Fiction
The People’s Pope and the Chairman of Everything
On the parallels between the way the Pope and the "Chairman of Everything" have been framed as public figures.
Jeffrey WasserstromApr 28, 2015
- Around the World
- Cultural Studies
Mad Men, Season 7: "Time & Life"
Not Safe For Work: Mad Men's Art of Cursing
Lili Loofbourow, Phillip MaciakApr 27, 2015
- Dear Television
A Helluva Lot Easier When They’re Dead: Picturing the Civil War in Comic, Collage, and Corpse
Apr 27, 2015
Game of Thrones: Season 5, "High Sparrow"
Cersei Lannister’s Last F–ckable Day
Sarah MesleApr 27, 2015
- Dear Television
Double Take: On Carmen Maria Machado
In Machado's stories, form is uncanny, sly, a pool of raindrops, a slightly skewed face in the mirror.
Sofia SamatarApr 26, 2015
- SF
Reflections on the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement (FSM) 50 Years Later
UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement, 50 years on.
Richard HertzbergApr 25, 2015
- Politics
Reality Hunger: The Six Books of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Part III
Part 3 of a 3-Part Series
William PierceApr 24, 2015
- Biography & Autobiography
- Fiction
Radio Hour: Günter Grass, Shame Reading, & Laurie's Apology
LARB AVApr 23, 2015
Reality Hunger: The Six Books of Karl Ove Knausgaard, Part II
Part 2 of a 3-Part Series
William PierceApr 23, 2015
- Biography & Autobiography
- Fiction