Reviews Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Reviews

Hells Angels and Other Role Models: Robert Anthony Siegel’s “Criminals”
“Criminals” is Robert Anthony Siegel’s account of his New York City childhood as the son of an unscrupulous defense attorney.
Pete TosielloOct 3, 2018
- Memoir & Essay
A Self-Portrait of the Artist as an Aged Man
Shoshana Olidort reviews Leonard Cohen’s posthumous “The Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings.”
Shoshana OlidortOct 2, 2018
- Music
- Poetry
“The Blood of the Unhappy Tsar”: On Helen Rappaport’s “The Race to Save the Romanovs”
Douglas Smith investigates “The Race to Save the Romanovs” by Helen Rappaport.
Douglas SmithSep 30, 2018
- Around the World
- History
“Read Everything, Son, Everything You Can Get Your Hands On”: James Baldwin’s “Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood”
James Baldwin’s 1976 young adult novel, reissued.
Tiffany Willoughby-HerardSep 30, 2018
- Young Adult & Children’s Literature
Beyond People’s History: On Paul Ortiz’s “African American and Latinx History of the United States”
Paul Ortiz's book helps us remember that the people who fought united against white supremacy, have a long and powerful track record.
Samantha SchuylerSep 29, 2018
- History
Recontextualizing the Archive: On Anouck Durand’s “Eternal Friendship”
Will Moore on the subtly subversive "Eternal Friendship."
Will MooreSep 29, 2018
Vodou as Idea: On Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley’s “Ezili’s Mirrors”
Exploring the line between faith and fantasy, “voodoo” and Vodou, in Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley’s “Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Queer Black Genders.”
Gina Athena UlysseSep 28, 2018
- Gender & Sexuality
- Religion
Drawing It Out: This Is What Reproduction Looks Like (Spoiler Alert: It’s Complicated)
Kitty Lindsay finds a useful tool in "Graphic Reproduction: A Comics Anthology," edited by Jenell Johnson.
Kitty LindsaySep 28, 2018
- Comics
- Gender & Sexuality
A Jenga Tower: Anna Moschovakis’s “Eleanor, or, The Rejection of the Progress of Love”
"If you read this book, read it three times, each time buying a new copy for the sake of the author." Sakada reviews Anna Moschovakis's new novel.
SakadaSep 28, 2018
- Fiction
Risky Rasskazy: Mikhail Zoshchenko’s Thoroughly Unsentimental “Sentimental Tales”
Bob Blaisdell considers the six longer stories collected in Mikhail Zoshchenko’s “Sentimental Tales,” newly translated by Boris Dralyuk.
Bob BlaisdellSep 27, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Things They Carried: On “Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement”
Ashley Valanzola appraises “Objects of War: The Material Culture of Conflict and Displacement,” edited by Leora Auslander and Tara E. Zahra.
Ashley ValanzolaSep 26, 2018
- Cultural Studies
- History
Mystics and Interlopers
"How effective are Islamic states at satisfying the religious needs of their citizens?" Nile Green on "The Iranian Metaphysicals."
Nile GreenSep 26, 2018
- Around the World
- Religion
Reckoning with Colombia’s Bloody, Conspiratorial History in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s “The Shape of the Ruins”
Mike Broida finds danger in Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s exploration of the conspiracies that shaped Colombia in his new novel, “The Shape of the Ruins.”
Mike BroidaSep 25, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Fight for Our Eyeballs
Alyssa Loh explores a critique of the attention economy from ex-Google strategist James Williams.
Alyssa LohSep 25, 2018
- Politics
- Science & Technology
The Many Lives and Deaths of the Body in Guadalupe Nettel’s “After the Winter”
For Callum Angus, Guadalupe Nettel’s mission in her newly translated novel After the Winter is “deeply personal and recognizably urgent.”
Callum AngusSep 24, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
Our Dead Man in Havana
Matt E. Lewis reviews “The Third Hotel” by Laura van den Berg.
Matt E. LewisSep 23, 2018
- Fiction
- Noir