Venita Blackburn’s Stages of Grief Venita Blackburn’s Stages of Grief
In Dead in Long Beach, California, the novelist looks at how integral lying is to any story we tell about death.
Jul 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Christopher Soto
Clarice Lispector’s Cosmology Clarice Lispector’s Cosmology
To understand the philosophical dimensions of her fiction you must read her 1961 novel The Apple in the Dark.
Jul 24, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Shaj Mathew
The Cruel Genius of Robert Plunket’s Gay Satires The Cruel Genius of Robert Plunket’s Gay Satires
His 1992 novel Love Junkie might be one of the tragicomic classics of the AIDS era.
Jul 23, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kate Wolf
The Planetary Vision of Soviet Russia’s Great Modernist Novel The Planetary Vision of Soviet Russia’s Great Modernist Novel
Andrey Platonov’s masterpiece Chevengur imagined a politics of solidarity that placed at its center the health of the planet.
Jul 16, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Maria Chehonadskih
The Man Hồ Chí Minh Once Was The Man Hồ Chí Minh Once Was
Joseph Andras's novel on the Vietnamese revolutionary's salad days in Paris imagines how a young radical became an icon.
Jun 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Terry Nguyễn
Diane Oliver’s Fiction From Both Sides of the Color Line Diane Oliver’s Fiction From Both Sides of the Color Line
Neighbors and Other Stories, a posthumously released collection, looks at all the uncertainty and promise of coming of age during and after the civil rights era.
Jun 17, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Kelton Ellis
A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture
In Essie Chambers’s debut novel, Swift River, protagonist Diamond Newberry finds ways to fill the gaps in her family tree.
Jun 6, 2024 / Kali Holloway
A Coming of Age Novel That Puzzles Through Gender A Coming of Age Novel That Puzzles Through Gender
In Griffin Hansbury’s Some Strange Music Draws Me In, a man’s recollections of his transition opens up into a nuanced examination of gender identity’s many contradictions.
May 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Grace Byron
The Imperial Gaze Turns on Britain’s Isles The Imperial Gaze Turns on Britain’s Isles
In Elizabeth O’Connor’s Whale Fall, an encounter between English documentarians and a remote Welsh island community provokes questions of sexual and national identity.
May 23, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Emmet Fraizer
Claire Messud’s Remarkable Experiment in Historical Fiction Claire Messud’s Remarkable Experiment in Historical Fiction
Chronicling a pied-noir family across generations and continents, she examines the moral and political responsibilities a novelist owes their kin and their readers.
May 22, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Lily Meyer