Colonialism and Its Ghosts in Dennis Mombauer’s “The House of Drought” – Chicago Review of Books

Colonialism and Its Ghosts in Dennis Mombauer’s “The House of Drought” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The ghosts of Dennis Mombauer’s The House of Drought are many, as many as there are allegories. The established fact of extraction, the ritual of sacrifice, the deviance of the unknown—these are its themes. None of these beasts are as powerful as the global narrative that has already been spinning: the irreversibility of climate … Read more

Champions and their Complaints in “Nettle & Bone” – Chicago Review of Books

Champions and their Complaints in “Nettle & Bone” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] T. Kingfisher’s most recent novel, Nettle & Bone, is a fairy tale, replete with the usual archetypes: a kind-hearted and naïve protagonist, magical companions, difficult siblings—even a villainous tyrant. The narrative follows the adventures of Marra, a thirty-year-old princess who must save her sister from an evil prince. But T. Kingfisher’s stories are rarely … Read more

The Labour of Love in “The Love Makers” – Chicago Review of Books

The Labour of Love in “The Love Makers” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The Love Makers begins with a two-hundred-page novel by Aifric Campbell, Scarlett and the Gurl. Over the span of a day, on a road trip in the near future, the reader meets two archetypes: a bourgeoise woman named “Scarlett” and a poor woman who calls herself “Gurl,” honouring herself with the universality of gender. … Read more

Conspiracies and Madness in “You Feel It Just Below the Ribs” – Chicago Review of Books

Conspiracies and Madness in “You Feel It Just Below the Ribs” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The world of You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is all apocalypse and debris, bare shambles coagulating into a familiar dystopian world order. The novel is marked as an “alternate history” of the early twentieth century, except that it doesn’t feel like one. The timelines are certainly murky, the laws are new, the … Read more