Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Afghanistan, 2001
Afghanistan three weeks after 9/11.
Tom StreithorstSep 29, 2013
Before the Inevitable Ending: Time, Nâzım Hikmet, and the Sweet Potato Boy of Tahrir Square
It was a poem that did it, that stopped time for a moment, that cleared a space for Omar among the barrage of numbers and facts. In the aftermath of Omar’s death, a poem by the Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet was circulating.
Andy YoungSep 29, 2013
Perpetual Adolescence: The Fullbright Company’s “Gone Home”
Gone Home: a video game about releasing secrets
Ian BogostSep 28, 2013
A Journey into Zimbabwe’s Postcolonial Subconscious
Mugabe the monster and Mugabe the man in a new play by Fraser Grace on Zimbabwe's (and Africa's) longest-ruling dictator.
Timothy SpanglerSep 27, 2013
A New Theory on "Mark Twain"
Samuel Clemens knew how to manage his brand, "Mark Twain," back when a brand was something only cattle had. Now we know where he got the name.
Daniel HernandezSep 26, 2013
Can This Couple Work It Out?
Science vs. Humanities
Iain McGilchristSep 25, 2013
Three Questions by Daniel Olivas: Menes and Huerta
Daniel A. OlivasSep 24, 2013
Brown Noise: Jonathan Franzen’s Sirens of the Subcontinent
Nina MartyrisSep 22, 2013
Boys 'Round Here
Why the women of country music are very different than the men
Alice BolinSep 22, 2013
Essays on Jonathan Franzen’s Latest Book and His First
Andrew Winer, Nina MartyrisSep 22, 2013
- Fiction
In Another Kind of Battle: Rereading Henry Bromell
Henry Bromell's fiction investigated the same complex themes as his last show, Homeland.
Angelica BakerSep 22, 2013
Like Trash on the Hall Floor
Jean HarrisSep 21, 2013
“You can’t take the devil out of people with pills.”
Clara Dawson and Jolyon Mitchell on the history and theology of exorcism and director Christian Mungiu’s film Beyond the Hills.
Clara Dawson, Jolyon MitchellSep 21, 2013
The Romanian New Wave Crests: Cristian Mungiu's 'Beyond the Hills'
The best of the new Romanian directors and his film about exorcism.
Costica BradatanSep 21, 2013
I Don't Love You That Way Anymore
Lesbianism, exorcism, and post Ceaucescu Romania in Mungiu's Beyond the Hills
Sep 21, 2013
Syria and the Peace of Westphalia
The treaties constituting the Peace of Westphalia were drawn up by pragmatists as way out of sectarian violence — might it have some clues for us?
Robert ZaretskySep 20, 2013
- Religion