Book Reviews

[ad_1] Eihei Dōgen Zenji—the Japanese founder of what remains one of the most vital sects within Zen Buddhism, the Sōtō school—wrote the Sansui kyō, the “Mountains and Rivers Sutra” at his Kyoto monastery Kōshōhōrin-ji in the autumn of 1240. A poetic rumination on the foundational co-dependence within all of nature, this sutra has long been … Read more

[ad_1] Burning Worlds is Amy Brady’s monthly column dedicated to examining how contemporary literature interrogates issues of climate change, in partnership with Yale Climate Connections. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter to get “Burning Worlds” and other writing about art and climate change delivered straight to your inbox. Australian author and critic James Bradley stunned with his previous novel, Clade, … Read more

[ad_1] “The Artist’s Bookshelf” is a column about books that inspire the CHIRB staff’s favorite artists. Theo Germaine has range. If you’ve seen them in Abby McEnany’s Work In Progress on Showtime, you’ll know them as Chris, the compassionate, joyful love interest of the protagonist, Abby. Together, they run around Chicago backdrops I know and … Read more

[ad_1] Sherlock Holmes is one of the most adapted stories of all time—per Guinness, Dracula is the only character portrayed more frequently in film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Sherlock has the lead for prose adaptations. The detective is no stranger to genre science fiction and fantasy either, with award-winning stories like Neil Gaiman’s … Read more

[ad_1] “The Artist’s Bookshelf” is a column about books that inspire the CHIRB staff’s favorite artists. A visual artist and tenured professor at Glendale College in Los Angeles County, California, April Bey grew up in the Bahamas–which we can see all through her artwork. Her pieces explore the intersections of American and Bahamian culture, and … Read more

[ad_1] The title of Joyce Carol Oates’ fifty-ninth novel is extracted from Walt Whitman’s “A Clear Midnight,” which ends with: “pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars.” These themes, indeed, subsist throughout Oates’s narrative, and one might even say that Oates loves them best, too. They are the pilot light … Read more

[ad_1] Ray Bradbury has written some of the most recognizable and deeply loved stories in literature, from The Martian Chronicles to Fahrenheit 451 and even lesser known (but just as beloved) tales like The Halloween Tree. Bradbury’s influence on both genre writing and literary writing is undeniable. To work beside him, to be mentored by … Read more

[ad_1] Laurence Ralph is the author of The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence, out now on the University of Chicago Press. Growing up as an African American boy in the suburbs of Baltimore and Atlanta, I got a first-hand introduction to the politics of race and quickly learned that I should be afraid of … Read more

[ad_1] There has been a contemporary movement, stirred by the unease and anxiety that is so prevalent in this stage of late capitalism, of books about women who are unhappily employed, lonely, self-loathing, and–this one’s important–often intoxicated. And Jean Kyoung Frazier’s Pizza Girl definitely fits into that category, joining novels like Halle Butler’s The New … Read more

[ad_1] More Miracle Than Bird, Alice Miller’s debut novel, joins a spate of stories that imagine relationships between famous male artists and their wives. Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife (2011), Therese Anne Fowler’s Z (2013), and Whitney Sharer’s The Age of Light (2019) – to mention a few – all attempt to give depth and … Read more