Book Reviews Archives

An Interview With Gina Frangello – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 17, 2021 by Clancey D'Isa

The title of Gina Frangello’s debut memoir, Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason, can be read as an imperative: to … Read More

The Unique Dialogue Between Present and Past in “Low Country” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 17, 2021 by Anita Gill

In January 2013, J. Nicole Jones penned the essay “Why’s everyone so down on memoir?” In this piece, she examines the criteria for why writers … Read More

Bronzeville’s Black-Owned Bookstores – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 14, 2021 by Mary I. Unger

With renewed interest across the country in Black-owned bookstores and booksellers—like Chicago’s own Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery—now is an important time to remember that Bronzeville … Read More

Investigating the Anthropocene in “Hummingbird Salamander” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 14, 2021 by Jake Casella Brookins

By looking beyond the surface clues to deeper and more unsettling realities, the detective story lends itself well to horror, even cosmic horror. There are … Read More

Realism and Surrealism in “Leonora in the Morning Light” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 13, 2021 by Kat Solomon

The surrealist painter Leonora Carrington is enjoying a renaissance of late, with renewed interest in both her visual art and literary work. The last few … Read More

A Wild Ride Through the Mind in “Peaces” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 13, 2021 by Sara Cutaia

My first introduction to Helen Oyeyemi’s work was her story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, and I found it curious and unlike … Read More

Duty And Place In “The German Lesson” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 13, 2021 by Michael Pittard

When World War II comes to an end in Siegfried Lenz’s The German Lesson, our young narrator, Siggi, is looking through a microscope at some … Read More

Cosmic Rebellion in “Trafik” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 13, 2021 by Joseph Houlihan

Since her connection with American and European surrealist groups of the 1960s (Arsenal, Phases) Rikki Ducornet has deployed tactics familiar to the historical avant-garde, including … Read More

The Possibility of Change and Movement in “The Five Wounds” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 13, 2021 by Michael Welch

I was first introduced to Kirstin Valdez Quade’s writing in a graduate workshop, when the professor led a discussion on the short story “Nemecia,” from … Read More

New Episode of Your Favorite Book with Morgan Jerkins – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsApril 13, 2021 by Malavika Praseed

Welcome to another installment of a collaboration between the Chicago Review of Books and the Your Favorite Book podcast. Malavika Praseed, frequent CHIRB contributor and … Read More

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