Sowmya Krishnamurthy on “Fashion Killa” – Chicago Review of Books

Sowmya Krishnamurthy on “Fashion Killa” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Building on her years of innovative and thorough reporting for publications like XXL, Time, Complex, and NPR, Sowmya Krishnamurthy’s Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion deftly traces 50+ years of innovation in hip hop with regard to creativity and fashion. Through interviews with key players and pictures worth thousands of words, Krishnamurthy traces … Read more

A Conversation with Adriana Chartrand on “An Ordinary Violence” – Chicago Review of Books

A Conversation with Adriana Chartrand on “An Ordinary Violence” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] When she moved to Toronto—not far from the windy, desolate plains where she grew up—Dawn thought she had escaped the traumas of her past. And yet, when her life doesn’t go as she hoped it would in the big city, she finds herself driving back to the small town of her childhood—where her mother … Read more

Power and Uncertainty in Marie NDiaye’s “Vengeance is Mine” – Chicago Review of Books

Power and Uncertainty in Marie NDiaye’s “Vengeance is Mine” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The protagonist of Vengeance is Mine, (translated by Jordan Stump from La Vengeance m’appartient), Marie NDiaye’s twelfth novel, is known to the reader only by her title and surname. A French lawyer, she is Maître Susane, and at the novel’s opening, she has recently opened a struggling law practice. She drives an ancient car … Read more

Life Lessons from the Early Greeks” – Chicago Review of Books

Life Lessons from the Early Greeks” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] On the “wine-dark” Aegean seas of Homer’s Odyssey, the merchants of Tyre and Sidon, of Byblos and Carthage, put out from their home ports—busy hives of activity crammed with merchants from all over the ancient world—in order to, like free-flowing dolphins, traverse the waterways of the Mediterranean. This ease of connection was not only … Read more

The Horrifying Reality of Ray Shell’s “Iced” – Chicago Review of Books

The Horrifying Reality of Ray Shell’s “Iced” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] It is evident from the very first pages of Ray Shell’s Iced, that the book’s story is unlike any other you’ve ever heard or read. The novel follows Cornelius Washington Jr., a once-promising man from an upper-middle-class Black family, who now operates in a ‘90s drug-riddled New York City. Following tragedy after tragedy, mistake … Read more

An Interview with Ye Chun about “Straw Dogs Of The Universe” – Chicago Review of Books

An Interview with Ye Chun about “Straw Dogs Of The Universe” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Straw Dogs Of The Universe is a multigenerational epic packed with action and adversity— but its heroes are mere humans, who must rely on luck and grit for a chance to surmount the terror of being a Chinese migrant in 19th century California. Devalued by railroad bosses, enslaved by brothel owners, and hunted down … Read more

The Relationship Between Reader and Story in “Family Meal” – Chicago Review of Books

The Relationship Between Reader and Story in “Family Meal” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Bryan Washington sets the table in Family Meal with an abundance of ordinary details. His characters are busy with their hands, for instance: they might play with their thumbs, twirl a pen, throw the peace sign, or flick a cherry tomato. Fingers press into orifices and bodily fluids, press cell phone screens, and press … Read more

Peter Coviello’s “Is There God after Prince?” – Chicago Review of Books

Peter Coviello’s “Is There God after Prince?” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The Head and the Heart are an indie rock band who are not one of the subjects of Peter Coviello in his recent collection of essays, Is There God after Prince? Dispatches from an Age of Last Things. The assemblage reads more like a set of collected works than an essay collection with a … Read more

Logging On for “Extremely Online” – Chicago Review of Books

Logging On for “Extremely Online” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] As a journalist on the internet beat, journalist Taylor Lorenz has followed influencers and the social media economy for nearly a decade. In many instances, she has become the story herself, particularly on right-wing social media, and she brings her own first-hand experience to the table in her reporting. For someone like me, who … Read more