Reviews Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

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The Slovak Kafka: On Balla’s “In the Name of the Father”
Charles Sabatos contextualizes the Kafkaesque post-communist novella “In the Name of the Father” by the major Slovak author Balla.
Charles SabatosAug 28, 2017
- Around the World
- Fiction
Strange Bedfellows: Queers, Conservatives, Catholics
Jonathan Alexander ponders homophobia in Islam and Christianity.
Jonathan AlexanderAug 28, 2017
Cinempathy: Doing Ethics on Screen
Joseph G. Kickasola reviews Robert Sinnerbrink's "Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film."
Joseph G. KickasolaAug 27, 2017
- Film
- Philosophy & Religion
In the Key That Our Souls Were Singing
Matthew Zapruder is persuasive and optimistic enough to make one feel patriotic about poetry.
Amy GerstlerAug 27, 2017
- Memoir & Essay
- Poetry
Foreign Companion: Jean Giono’s “Melville: A Novel”
Adam Fales reviews Jean Giono’s “Melville: A Novel.”
Adam FalesAug 27, 2017
- Around the World
- Fiction
Mortifying Miniatures: On Andrés Barba’s “Such Small Hands”
Bécquer Seguín reviews Andrés Barba's recently translated "Such Small Hands."
Bécquer SeguínAug 25, 2017
- Around the World
- Fiction
Pulsing Instantiations of a Revolution: “The City Always Wins” by Omar Robert Hamilton
Omar Robert Hamilton revisits the Arab Spring in his jolting new novel, "The City Always Wins."
Farid FaridAug 25, 2017
- Fiction
How Fragile We Were: Why the United States Almost Failed Early
The Trump era wasn’t this nation’s first constitutional mess; the worst one happened almost right after we had a Constitution, argues a new book.
Monica RicoAug 24, 2017
- History
- Politics
Tell Me I Belong Here: On Charif Shanahan’s “Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing”
Natalie Eilbert reviews Charif Shanahan’s new collection, “Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing.”
Natalie EilbertAug 24, 2017
- Poetry
Art as Target. Art as Grid: On Mary Jo Salter’s “The Surveyors”
Rachel Hadas reviews Mary Jo Salter’s “The Surveyors.”
Rachel HadasAug 24, 2017
- Poetry
CRISPR, Patents, and Nobel Prizes
Henry T. Greely on the contentious history of CRISPR patents.
Henry T. GreelyAug 23, 2017
- Science & Technology
A Turkish Woman in the Oedipus Complex: Orhan Pamuk’s “The Red-Haired Woman”
Erdağ Göknar reviews Orhan Pamuk's latest.
Erdağ GöknarAug 22, 2017
- Around the World
- Fiction
The Provocateur’s Spirit
On “My Heart Hemmed In” by Marie NDiaye.
Tara CheesmanAug 21, 2017
- Noir
A Pear, a Bear, and Some Hair: Caricature and Freedom of the Press
Victoria Dailey considers the art of caricature and freedom of the press under Louis Philippe and Donald Trump.
Victoria DaileyAug 21, 2017
Soviet Pseudoscience: The History of Mind Control
The long, strange history of Soviet mind control experiments.
Giovanni VimercatiAug 20, 2017
- History
- Science & Technology
Fabulous, Tragic Kurt Tucholsky
One of the best-paid German journalists in the 1920s, Kurt Tucholsky was the canary in the coal mine of the Weimar Republic.
Franz BaumannAug 19, 2017
- Around the World
- Politics