Nonfiction

"There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them." — Federico García Lorca

A Man Without a Country: On Scott Eyman’s “Charlie Chaplin vs. America”
Chris Yogerst reviews Scott Eyman’s “Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided.”
Chris YogerstOct 26, 2023
Can We Imagine Better Work? On Aviva Briefel and Jason Middleton’s “Labors of Fear”
Brandon R. Grafius reviews Aviva Briefel and Jason Middleton’s “Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work.”
Brandon R. GrafiusOct 25, 2023
Everything Is Embedded in What Came Before: A Conversation with Robert M. Sapolsky
Julien Crockett interviews Robert M. Sapolsky, author of “Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will.”
Julien CrockettOct 22, 2023
You Mustn’t Pretend You Didn’t Know: Arundhati Roy on the Condition of India Under Modi
Arundhati Roy accepts the Charles Veillon Foundation’s 45th European Essay Prize for lifetime achievement.
Arundhati RoyOct 21, 2023
Who Gets to Set the Research Agenda for the Planet? On Lorraine Daston’s “Rivals”
Deborah Coen pushes back against one part of Lorraine Daston’s “Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate” by arguing that what constitutes “success” is a matter of who is part of the scientific conversation (and who is not)—and thus a matter of standpoint.
Deborah R. CoenOct 17, 2023
Science Fiction Belongs to All of Us: On Joy Sanchez-Taylor’s “Diverse Futures”
Julia Lindsay reviews Joy Sanchez-Taylor’s “Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color.”
Julia LindsayOct 8, 2023
Ask Not What Your Robot Can Do for You, but What You Can Do for Your Robot
Jerrine Tan visits a LOVOT robotics lab and is unexpectedly enchanted.
Jerrine TanOct 4, 2023
The Struggle Continues: On Vincent Bevins’s “If We Burn”
Tyler McBrien reviews Vincent Bevins’s “If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.”
Tyler McBrienOct 3, 2023
Stories We Tell: The Promise and Peril of Mental Illness Narratives
Through analysis of Meg Kissinger’s “While You Were Out: An Intimate Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence” and Rachel Aviv’s “Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and Stories that Make Us,” Isabel Ruehl contemplates the role of storytelling in perpertuating mental illness.
Isabel RuehlSep 28, 2023
- Memoir & Essay
- Nonfiction
The Funny Thing About Misogyny
In a preview of LARB Quarterly no. 39: “Air,” Katie Kadue breaks down the misogynist history of the rape joke.
Katie KadueSep 25, 2023
A Fireball in the Marshall Islands: How a Nuclear Test Changed the World
Émile P. Torres describes how it was not the dropping of the atom bombs in 1945 but the testing of a nuclear bomb is the Marshall Islands in 1954 that marked the moment when people became preoccupied with human extinction.
Émile P. TorresSep 20, 2023
Annals of an Alternate World: On John McPhee’s “Tabula Rasa”
Noah Rawlings reviews John McPhee’s “Tabula Rasa.”
Noah RawlingsSep 15, 2023
- Memoir & Essay
- Nonfiction