Book Reviews – Page 14

A Conversation between Giada Scodellaro and Amina Cain on Marie NDiaye’s “Self-Portrait in Green” (translated by Jordan Stump)

Book ReviewsSeptember 28, 2023 by Amina Cain and Giada Scodellaro

[ad_1] French novelist, screenwriter, and playwright Marie NDiaye had already published eight works and won the Prix Femina, a prestigious literary award chosen by an exclusively female jury, when she penned her novella Self-Portrait in Green, or Autoportrait en vert, in 2005. Four years and only two books later, NDiaye became the first Black woman … Read more

The Fear of Change in “We’re Safe When We’re Alone” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 27, 2023 by Sammy Loree

[ad_1] We’re Safe When We’re Alone, Nghiem Tran’s new novella, is dreamlike and imaginative, thrusting us into the world of ghosts and memories. Every character is given a familial label instead of a name, such as Son, the young protagonist, who is forced to adjust outside of his isolation and out into this ominous world. … Read more

A Conversation with Elyssa Maxx Goodman – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 27, 2023 by Ian MacAllen

[ad_1] Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City examines drag performance from the 19th Century through the contemporary era, from broad cultural trends to the individual experiences of performers. Elyssa Maxx Goodman dives into language, legalities, and the ebb and flow of perceptions. I first met Goodman a year ago … Read more

A Conversation with Nathan Hill on “Wellness” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 26, 2023 by Angie Raney

[ad_1] Rarely do you read a novel that makes you want to get up and finish that essay you’ve let sit idle in your word document for months. Even more rarely do you read a novel that reminds you why you became a writer in the first place. Nathan Hill’s debut, The Nix, took the … Read more

The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 21, 2023 by Mimi Borders

[ad_1] In Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, historian Dylan Penningroth points to the journey towards civil rights for Black Americans beginning “in the fields and cabins of slaves.” Here, in the thick of Antebellum slavery, slaves crafted a knowledge of the law through acts such as accumulation and claims of … Read more

Robin Hood and Red Scare Resistance in “Red Sapphire” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 21, 2023 by Steve Nathans-Kelly

[ad_1] Martin Ritt’s 1976 film The Front delivers a vivid re-creation of the 1950s Red Scare in which many of Hollywood’s most talented writers, actors, and directors found themselves blacklisted and prevented from working in the film and TV industry because of past or present Communist associations and their refusal to name names. In the … Read more

Bodies and Open Spaces in “Wound” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 19, 2023 by Kat Solomon

[ad_1] In the early pages of Oksana Vasyakina’s Wound, the narrator finds herself tucked into a small car with distant acquaintances in a small town outside Volgograd, on her way to pick up her mother’s ashes, where she cannot help but overhear her companions’ conversation: “The cousin said that Western propaganda had gotten really shameless. … Read more

A Conversation with RS Deeren – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 19, 2023 by Michael Welch

[ad_1] I vividly remember a moment when someone in one of my writing workshops described my writing as “blue collar” because I was writing about my father’s work as a Chicago firefighter. Until then, I had always viewed my upbringing as comfortably middle class. My parents worked incredibly hard and sacrificed often in order to … Read more

A Conversation With Mary Jo Bang – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 14, 2023 by Mandana Chaffa

[ad_1] Mary Jo Bang’s acclaimed translation of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno starts with this unforgettable verse: “Stopped mid-motion in the middle / Of what we call our life, I looked up and saw no sky—Only / a dense cage of leaf, tree, and twig. I was lost.” As I am “mid-motion in the middle” of my … Read more

An Interview with Etaf Rum – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsSeptember 12, 2023 by Rachel León

[ad_1] I’d promised myself I would take a break from contributing for a few months, but broke that promise when I saw Etaf Rum’s Evil Eye on the list of September releases. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk to Etaf again, as we’d had such a great conversation in 2019 about her debut novel, … Read more