Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Making a Killing
Mikkel Krause Frantzen discusses the future of the financial thriller in an era of cryptocurrencies and climate crisis.
Mikkel Krause FrantzenOct 2
From “To the Madhouse: A Novel”
Robert Rubsam offers a portrait of the artist as a lonely man, in an excerpt featured in the LARB Quarterly, no. 46: “Alien.”
Robert RubsamOct 1
- LARB Lit
- Fiction
Against the Wound
Jake Romm navigates artistic depictions of genocide and religious violence—some illuminating, others devoid of substance—from Renaissance Italy to modern-day Berlin, in an essay from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Jake RommSep 29
- LARB Lit
- Art & Architecture
The Grove
Tajja Isen reminisces on the extra-retail therapies of childhood trips to The Grove in the newest installment of I Come Here Often, from LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Tajja IsenSep 29
- LARB Lit
- Memoir & Essay
Does One Size Fit All?
In the 10th essay in the Legacies of Eugenics series, Jay S. Kaufman shows how the science of human body size is suffused with cultural assumptions.
Jay S. KaufmanSep 27
- Science & Technology
- Politics
The Ruins of Utopia
Melissa Chadburn explores the history of the Llano del Rio Cooperative Colony through the writings of Aldous Huxley.
Melissa ChadburnSep 23
- Memoir & Essay
- History
Vous écoutez RFI
Anna Gaca finally understands French, in a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 46: “Alien.”
Anna GacaSep 22
- LARB Lit
- Cultural Studies
The Lucas Museum and the Question of Narrative Art
Leo Braudy proposes a historical and aesthetic rationale for George Lucas’s Museum of Narrative Art.
Leo BraudySep 16
- Film
- Art & Architecture
On Translation Fiction and the Comfort of Monolingualism
Marie Lambert analyzes recent works of fiction that feature translators as protagonists, and the questions they raise about cross-cultural communication in a heterogeneous world.
Marie LambertSep 15
- Literary Criticism
- Fiction
If Anything Can Happen, It Certainly Will
Matthew Cobb reports from the Spirit of Asilomar, an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the legendary biotechnology conference.
Matthew CobbSep 12
- Science & Technology
- History
White Noise, White Heat, White Books
Dashiel Carrera considers Han Kang, sleep, and the Velvet Underground.
Dashiel CarreraAug 29
- Memoir & Essay
- Fiction
The Missing Maoist Middle of Dag Solstad
David M. Smith examines the career of the great Norwegian novelist Dag Solstad, and the gaps in English translation of his work.
David M. SmithAug 18
- Fiction
- Memoir & Essay
The Rest Is History
Mary Turfah writes on Gaza and the limits of the war photograph, in an essay from the upcoming issue of LARB Quarterly, no. 46: “Alien.”
Mary TurfahAug 11
Delicate and Dirty
Ben Arthur revisits a transformative moment in American culture through the lens of J. Hoberman’s “Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde—Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop.”
Ben ArthurAug 7
- History
- Cultural Studies
The Common Man Is Coming into His Own
Michael Kobre considers the Fantastic Four superhero “The Thing” and Jack Kirby’s relationship to his own Judaism.
Michael KobreAug 4
Some Women Want to Wear It
Soraya Sebghati outlines a canon of 21st-century Iranian film.
Soraya SebghatiJul 28
- Film
- Cultural Studies