Book Reviews Archives

Knocking Poetry Off Its Pedestal in “The Math Campers” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 30, 2020 by Ryan Asmussen

An extraordinary, often mesmerizing engagement with the nature of identity and other existential trappings, The Math Campers, Dan Chiasson’s new collection of poetry, is a … Read More

Recovery and Reinvention in “Like a Bird” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 29, 2020 by Shazia Hafiz Ramji

In My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies, author Resmaa Menakem challenges us to think of white supremacy … Read More

The Layered Explorations of Self in “Piranesi” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 28, 2020 by Dana Dunham

Sixteen years after the publication of her breakout novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke’s second novel has arrived. The new novel, Piranesi, bears … Read More

Obsession and Alternate Realities in “Red Pill” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 28, 2020 by Michael Pittard

We have all, at some point in our lives, awoken to find that something we used to believe is a lie. The world used to … Read More

Finding the Fault Lines of American Society in “Carry” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 28, 2020 by Dana Dunham

Like a murmuration of starlings, Toni Jensen’s new book Carry changes its shape constantly and effortlessly. Its subtitle is A Memoir of Survival on Stolen … Read More

Class and Conversations in “We Need To Talk” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 28, 2020 by Megin Jimenez

Inequality may be as old as human society, but never has it been this extreme, quantifiable and remediable. We’ve seen everyone from the Pope to … Read More

Why Intelligence Fails and Succeeds in “The Spymasters” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 25, 2020 by Keith Contorno

Double agents, covert operations, moles, dead drops, deep-sixed tapes, election meddling, secret identities, enhanced interrogation, brush passes, assassinations — when it comes to spy work, … Read More

Prince’s Bassist on the Purple One’s Genius and the Minneapolis Sound – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 24, 2020 by Alan Scherstuhl

Imagine you’re a teenager waiting around in the parking lot of the 7-11 where you work for a stranger to pick you up and drive … Read More

Invisible Lives in “High as the Waters Rise” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 23, 2020 by Amy Brady

Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature interrogates issues of climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly … Read More

Incorrigible Passion in “Furia” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 21, 2020 by Jen Cox

In Yamile Saied Méndez new YA novel, Furia, two childhood friends in Rosario, Argentina grow up to fall in love — with each other and … Read More

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