Book Reviews – Page 64

Portraits of the Poet in Cortney Lamar Charleston’s “Doppelgangbanger” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by Mandana Chaffa

[ad_1] It’s been five years since Cortney Lamar Charleston’s debut, and Doppelgangbanger is more than worth the wait: it’s a kaleidoscope of a collection effortlessly combining cultural signposts with philosophical ruminations about identity, place and self-determination. Charleston explores the ways that spirit and body can be restricted, harmed, and too often obliterated in our society … Read more

“The Delivery” is a Meta-Fictional Puppet Show with Little to Say – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by elliotfrank

[ad_1] In an interview for The Believer, graphic artist turned novelist Peter Mendelsund elaborated his own approach to literature by using a surprising comparison to another art: puppetry. The audience of a puppet show is observing two stories simultaneously, “the diegetic material that the puppets are performing, and the actions the puppeteer is performing.” In … Read more

Facing Divides in “The Kindest Lie” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by Clancey D'Isa

[ad_1] In Nancy Johnson’s debut novel, The Kindest Lie, a story of desire and identity unfolds around a young, Yale-educated Black chemical engineer named Ruth. Her story, told with attention and sincerity, is not a simple narrative of homecoming. Rather, Ruth, who returns to her Indiana hometown in the midst of an economic depression, comes … Read more

Living in the Little-Space-Between in “No One is Talking About This” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by teddyburnette

[ad_1] In Patricia Lockwood’s debut novel, No One is Talking About This, there is a line after the birth of her sister’s child which highlights the balancing act attempted in this book: “It was a marvel how cleanly and completely this lifted her out of the stream of regular life.” Lockwood’s exquisite writing aims to … Read more

The Open Space of Uncertainty in “Rabbit Island” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 14, 2021 by Kat Solomon

[ad_1] “For me, ghosts are never the spirits of strangers. They are the people I love most dearly,” confesses the narrator of one of the stories in Elvira Navarro’s collection Rabbit Island. Translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, these stories often cross the line between delusion and reality, constructs that in Navarro’s hands prove … Read more

Megan Stielstra’s First Books Are Getting a New Home This Summer with NU Press – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 14, 2021 by Sara Cutaia

[ad_1] It’s always cold this time of year, but when Megan Stielstra’s first two books quietly became available for pre-orders early in January, it got cool. Previously out of print, Stielstra’s collections Everyone Remain Calm and Once I Was Cool will now have a new home with Northwestern University Press this August. Both books are … Read more

Grand, Transcendent Love in “Ridgerunner” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 13, 2021 by Shazia Hafiz Ramji

[ad_1] A loner on the run is a Western literary genre trope, but Toronto poet and novelist Gil Adamson transforms it wholly in Ridgerunner, the follow-up to her debut novel, The Outlander. While the first book is a character study of nineteen-year-old Mary Boulton, a woman on the run from her brothers-in-law after she murders … Read more

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner – Book Review

Book ReviewsFebruary 13, 2021 by Candice Jarrett

[ad_1] Rating: ★★★★★ Title: The Lost ApothecaryAuthor: Sarah Penner Book Review Like a bottle of poison, The Lost Apothecary should come with a warning label. WARNING: May cause insomnia and drowsiness the next day at work because you could not put this book down and read it until all hours of the night. Side effects … Read more

Order and Politics in “This is Not Normal” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 13, 2021 by Dana Dunham

[ad_1] In Cass Sunstein’s book This is Not Normal, he observes that “…the success of President Trump has made many people fear that a president, with his current powers, might have the ability to undermine the foundations of a democratic order, above all by altering the understanding of what counts as normal.” Um, yes. I … Read more

The Freedom to Write Beyond Race – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 4, 2021 by Tamika Thompson

[ad_1] Since the onset of the global pandemic, there’s certainly no shortage of virtual literary programming, but I’m happy to share a few upcoming events I’ve had a hand in creating that are geared toward writers of color. For writers of color who have created work but are unsure how or where to send it, … Read more