Love is a Mixtape Worth Living For in “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both” – Chicago Review of Books

Love is a Mixtape Worth Living For in “I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Love is a dangerous and frustrating emotion for Mariah Stovall’s main characters in her novel, I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both. Khaki Oliver is a socially awkward Black woman who was born punk. She mostly interacts with the world through the lens of music as evidenced by the book’s title, which … Read more

Looking Like the Real Thing in Scott Guild’s “Plastic” – Chicago Review of Books

Looking Like the Real Thing in Scott Guild’s “Plastic” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] First, I think we need to get Barbenheimer out of the way. I very much doubt that Scott Guild intended Plastic, his debut novel about life-sized plastic figurines and the nuclear Armageddon that threatens them, to come so close on the heels of Greta Gerwig’s and Christopher Nolan’s films. It’s a fascinating accident, though: … Read more

Sweet and Savory Memories in “The Kamogawa Food Detectives” – Chicago Review of Books

Sweet and Savory Memories in “The Kamogawa Food Detectives” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] If, in an alternate—though mostly unchanged—version of Japan, you were to peruse a certain magazine, reading carefully, your eyes might pause in their search at an ad that reads “Kamogawa Detective Agency: We Find Your Food.” No contact details or, for that matter, details of any kind would follow. But if you’re enterprising enough, … Read more

Books Set in the Cold for You to Read this Winter – Chicago Review of Books

Books Set in the Cold for You to Read this Winter – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] “Huge, dizzying, clumps and clusters of snow falling through the air, patches of white against an iron-gray sky, snow that touches your tongue with cold and winter, that kisses your face with its hesitant touch before freezing you to death. Twelve cotton-candy inches of snow, creating a fairytale world, making everything unrecognizably beautiful…” In … Read more

On Andrew Ewell’s “Set for Life” – Chicago Review of Books

On Andrew Ewell’s “Set for Life” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] In Andrew Ewell’s debut novel, Set for Life, our unnamed narrator is a tenure-less creative writing professor at a middling college in upstate New York. He’s been riding the coattails of his wife/colleague/benefactor’s literary success for years and, as he approaches 40, he has yet to make good on his own writerly promise in … Read more

A Conversation with GennaRose Nethercott – Chicago Review of Books

A Conversation with GennaRose Nethercott – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] When I started reading GennaRose Nethercott’s short story collection Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: and Other Stories, I was struck by the evocative description that these stories were about “the abomination that resides within us all.” Nethercott’s characters yearn for something missing in their lives, often love—but also a purpose, an answer, or … Read more

A Conversation with GennaRose Nethercott – Chicago Review of Books

A Conversation with GennaRose Nethercott – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] When I started reading GennaRose Nethercott’s short story collection Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: and Other Stories, I was struck by the evocative description that these stories were about “the abomination that resides within us all.” Nethercott’s characters yearn for something missing in their lives, often love—but also a purpose, an answer, or … Read more

Adriana Riva’s Salt, translated by Denise Kripper – Chicago Review of Books

Adriana Riva’s Salt, translated by Denise Kripper – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Adriana Riva’s latest novel concerns itself with the mother/daughter question: do we know them? Do they see us? Translated by Denise Kripper and published by Veliz Books, Salt depicts a pregnant Ema as she tries to close the ever-growing gap between herself and her mother. Despite residing in the same home, the two women … Read more

The Violence of Human Folly in “You Glow in the Dark” by Liliana Colanzi – Chicago Review of Books

The Violence of Human Folly in “You Glow in the Dark” by Liliana Colanzi – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Radioactivity haunts Liliana Colanzi’s short stories. In You Glow in the Dark, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews, real-world poisons seep into her characters and their communities, and violence simmers in the air. Despite people’s attempts to reach for better, the world’s sharp edges tend to find them. Colanzi’s landscapes draw from corrupt, … Read more

Aniefiok “Neef” Ekpoudom on the Seemingly-Meteoric Rise of UK Rap and Grime – Chicago Review of Books

Aniefiok “Neef” Ekpoudom on the Seemingly-Meteoric Rise of UK Rap and Grime – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The Chicago Review of Books is proud to partner with The Chills at Will Podcast to share new audio interviews with today’s brightest literary stars, including Jonathan Escoffery, Morgan Talty, Deesha Philyaw, Luis Alberto Urrea, and more. Hosted by Peter Riehl, The Chills at Will Podcast is a celebration of the visceral beauty of … Read more