Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Dead Cats: A Conversation on Romance and Rejection
A conversation between Gawker editor and “Ask A Fuck Up” columnist Brandy Jensen and writer and critic Andrea Long Chu on romance and rejection.
Andrea Long Chu, Brandy JensenAug 14, 2022
Retroactive Abortion: Time Travel and the Unborn Baby
Lauren Collee shows how time-travel movies of the 1980s reinforced Christian ideals of destiny, presenting abortion as a disruption to a “natural” timeline.
Lauren ColleeAug 13, 2022
- Film
- SF
“Pretty Big Once”: W. R. Burnett’s Cynical Americana
W. R. Burnett’s multifarious fiction exposed the fatal emptiness of American ambition.
Aug 12, 2022
- Fiction
- Noir
We Lost It at the Movies
Martha Southgate ponders the formative experiences and changing landscape of going to "The Movies."
Martha SouthgateAug 10, 2022
Askew from the Nation: Thinking About Home and Country with Chinua Achebe and James Baldwin
Abena Ampofoa Asare on the diasporic wanderings — and singular meeting — of James Baldwin and Chinua Achebe.
Abena Ampofoa AsareAug 10, 2022
“There’s No Such Thing as the True Self”: Camilla Taylor’s Art of Deception
Yael Friedman on the slyly brilliant work of L.A.-based artist Camilla Taylor.
Yael FriedmanAug 8, 2022
- Art & Architecture
Widow’s Peak
Laura Mauldin explores long and intensive caregiving, the devastation of losing a partner, and the process of healing, in part through having and loving a child.
Laura MauldinAug 7, 2022
- Memoir & Essay
On Thanksgiving, an Uninvited Guest
Jacque Gorelick explores her grief upon her breast cancer diagnosis, her experience of her treatment program, and the fear that she will have fewer Thanksgivings with her children.
Jacque GorelickAug 6, 2022
- Memoir & Essay
L.A., LAtinx Style: A Conversation Between Natalia Molina, Juan De Lara, George J. Sánchez, and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
A panel at the 2022 LA Times Festival of Books addressed the past and future of Los Angeles’s Latinx neighborhoods.
George J. Sánchez, Juan De Lara, Natalia Molina, Pierrette Hondagneu-SoteloAug 5, 2022
“The Leprosy of the Soul in Our Time”: On the European Origins of the “Great Replacement” Theory
Richard Wolin excavates the roots of the right-wing conspiracy theory that liberal elites are trying to “replace” white Americans with nonwhites.
Richard WolinAug 4, 2022
- Cultural Studies
- Politics
The Sublime Danielle Steel: For the Love of Supermarket Schlock
Dan Sinykin reconsiders the career of Danielle Steel.
Dan SinykinAug 3, 2022
- Fiction
- LARB Lit
Oscar Wilde Thought My Great-Grandfather Was Cute
Svetlana Kitto recalls when Oscar Wilde paid her great-grandfather a compliment.
Svetlana KittoJul 31, 2022
- LARB Lit
The Weather in “Passing”
Bharat Jayram Venkat looks at Nella Larsen’s novella, “Passing,” along with its film adaptation, to articulate a theory of “weather fiction.”
Bharat Jayram VenkatJul 30, 2022
- Film
Love Me Like a Rock
Marnie Goodfriend recalls the end of her relationship with a verbally abusive boyfriend.
Marnie GoodfriendJul 28, 2022
- Nonfiction
“This Should Not Be Repeated”: Civilian Devastation, from Syria to Ukraine
In this photoessay, Elle Kurancid and Fadi Al-Shami compare the current crisis in Ukraine to the last decade of war in Syria.
Elle Kurancid, Fadi Al-ShamiJul 26, 2022
- Around the World
- Law
Julie Doucet: How a Zine Author Went Canonical
Aubrey Gabel reflects on comics artist Julie Doucet's career and legacy.
Aubrey GabelJul 23, 2022
- Comics