Reviews Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Reviews

When Big Government Was Big
Is the federal bureaucracy one of the United States’s treasures?
Max HolleranFeb 12, 2018
- History
- Politics
A Brutal Corrective
A meticulous retelling of an ethnic massacre of the 1980s leaves no doubt who was responsible.
Gary SinghFeb 11, 2018
- Around the World
- History
Queen Mary: On Mary Beard’s “Women & Power: A Manifesto”
Rachel Shteir on Mary Beard’s “Women & Power: A Manifesto.”
Rachel ShteirFeb 11, 2018
- Gender & Sexuality
- Politics
Peter Thiel’s Unfortunate World: On “The Know-It-Alls” by Noam Cohen
A columnist takes a close look at Silicon Valley and finds it repulsive.
Bradley BabendirFeb 11, 2018
- Politics
- Science & Technology
Writing In Order to Live: On Maya Jasanoff’s “The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World”
John Tytell ranges over “The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World” by Maya Jasanoff.
John TytellFeb 10, 2018
Isolation, Intimacy, and Immortality in “Eternal Life” and “How to Stop Time”
Chelsea Leu finds the cloying and the clever in two new novels that reckon with immortality: Dara Horn’s “Eternal Life” and Matt Haig’s “How to Stop Time.”
Chelsea LeuFeb 10, 2018
- Fiction
“The Company of Diverse Others”: Encounters with Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir in conversation with enemies, friends, and allies.
Kathleen B. JonesFeb 9, 2018
- Gender & Sexuality
- Philosophy & Religion
The Long Shadow of Mitch: A New Book on Congress Stumbles Over Personalities
A book that tries to diagnose the problems with the US Senate suffers from the same disease: excessive partisanship.
Lori Cox HanFeb 8, 2018
- Politics
Mapping No-Man’s Land: On Thomas Dilworth’s “David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet”
Kevin McMahon praises “David Jones: Engraver, Soldier, Painter, Poet” by Thomas Dilworth.
Kevin McMahonFeb 8, 2018
Listening to Ghosts: On Hari Kunzru’s “White Tears” and Tyehimba Jess’s “Olio”
David Hering reviews "White Tears" and "Olio."
David HeringFeb 7, 2018
- Fiction
Set Theory in Verónica Gerber Bicecci’s “Empty Set”
Could Verónica Gerber Bicecci’s cleverly fragmented novel “Empty Set” be an antidote to narrative despair?
Lisa FetchkoFeb 7, 2018
- Around the World
- Fiction
No Strangers Here
Refusing polarized narratives, Toni Morrison's "The Origin of Others" takes up the nebulous task of understanding what it is to estrange or make familiar.
Yogita GoyalFeb 7, 2018
- Memoir & Essay
The Straight Way Was Lost: Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi’s “Call Me Zebra”
Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi’s “Call Me Zebra” threads narrative and theory to depict the isolating experience of exile.
Nathan Scott McNamaraFeb 6, 2018
- Fiction
Injustice and Intimacy in Tayari Jones’s “An American Marriage”
Tina McElroy Ansa reviews Tayari Jones's new novel.
Tina McElroy AnsaFeb 6, 2018
- Fiction
The Terror Is Constant: On Richard Avedon and James Baldwin’s “Nothing Personal”
A collaboration between two 20th-century greats.
Buzz PooleFeb 5, 2018
- Art & Architecture
Shame, Porn, and Perversion: On Erica Garza’s “Getting Off”
Kristin Sanders talks about sex, addiction, and technology in her review of Erica Garza’s new memoir, “Getting Off.”
Kristin SandersFeb 5, 2018
- Gender & Sexuality
- Memoir & Essay