Reviews Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

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The Miraculous Bonds and Secrets of “Motherhood”
“Motherhood” offers readers, and women in particular, ingenious ways to reconceive themselves.
Jennifer CroftMay 7, 2018
- Fiction
Rounding Up the Risks of Big Ag
Elena Conis considers “Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science” by Carey Gillam.
Elena ConisMay 6, 2018
Willed Resilience: On Andrew Motion and Christopher Reid
Declan Ryan reviews “Coming in to Land: Selected Poems 1975-2015” by Andrew Motion and “A Scattering and Anniversary” by Christopher Reid.
Declan RyanMay 6, 2018
- Poetry
Of Fairylands, Borders, and Charmed Circles: On Julio Capó Jr.’s “Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940”
Carlos Ulises Decena finds a welcome, nuanced portrait of queer history in Julio Capó Jr.’s “Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940.”
Carlos Ulises DecenaMay 6, 2018
Daddy’s Issues: Karl Ove Knausgaard’s “Spring”
If you still haven’t tried Knausgaard or have been unsatisfied with his helplessly casual "New York Times" travel essays, try "Spring."
Bob BlaisdellMay 5, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
That Evil Yellow Light: On Jean Stafford’s “The Mountain Lion”
Eric Gudas makes the case for “The Mountain Lion,” a classic novel of childhood by Jean Stafford.
Eric GudasMay 5, 2018
- Fiction
I Wake Up Choking
Muriel Rukeyser's "The Book of the Dead" is a story about race. It’s about industry. It’s about being held accountable and the right to a safe workplace.
Maggie MessittMay 5, 2018
Afterimages of a Dark Past in Ariel Dorfman’s “Darwin’s Ghosts”
Ariel Dorfman returns to fiction with a fact-based story that puts the reader on guard immediately.
Mark Axelrod-SokolovMay 4, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Unavoidable Percival Everett
On race and "So Much Blue."
Matthew MullinsMay 3, 2018
- Fiction
“Not in Someone Else’s Footsteps”: Studying Literature from the Gulag
Lydia Roberts praises “Intellectual Life and Literature at Solovki 1923-1930: The Paris of the Northern Concentration Camps” by Andrea Gullotta.
Lydia RobertsMay 3, 2018
Eve Babitz’s Expensive Regrets
In “Black Swans,” Eve Babitz probes the causes and consequences of why the ’60s and ’70s were so debauched.
Lauren SarazenMay 2, 2018
- Fiction
Why Kathy Acker Now?
Change the political genre, fight for something new, Acker’s work urges us, because conventional politics in the post-factual age is failing to evolve.
Ralph ClareMay 2, 2018
- Fiction
- Gender & Sexuality
The Things with Real Teeth and Power: Two Novellas from Sam Pink
Taylor Larsen finds the work of Sam Pink unique and true.
Taylor LarsenMay 1, 2018
- Fiction
Sentenced at Conception: The Imprisoned and Unloved in Rachel Kushner’s “The Mars Room”
Jennifer Croft finds Rachel Kushner’s “The Mars Room” a brilliant work of unique rigor.
Jennifer CroftMay 1, 2018
- Fiction
Twenty-First-Century Word Paintings: Nafissa Thompson-Spires’s “Heads of the Colored People”
Thompson-Spires’s satire, oriented around questions of blackness, joins a particular tradition of African-American sardonic absurdism.
Gabrielle BellotApr 30, 2018
- Fiction
(Again?) Again: Reading Leslie Jamison’s “The Recovering”
Ellen Wayland-Smith follows the narrative weave of Leslie Jamison’s memoir, “The Recovering.”
Ellen Wayland-SmithApr 30, 2018
- Memoir & Essay