Mapping the Interior by Proceeding through the Exterior in “A Flat Place” – Chicago Review of Books

Mapping the Interior by Proceeding through the Exterior in “A Flat Place” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Memoirs have sometimes been considered a form of fiction, not as false accounts but by being enriched with the layering of symbols, place, and affable narration. Noreen Masud’s A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma picks up these tools and employs them to full effect, as she takes the reader further … Read more

Yearning for Nature in Kathryn Bromwich’s “At the Edge of the Woods” – Chicago Review of Books

Yearning for Nature in Kathryn Bromwich’s “At the Edge of the Woods” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The pandemic forced everyone indoors, but while some spent their quarantine staring longingly out the window, growing stir crazy and desperate for human contact, others heaved a sigh of relief, secretly grateful for an excuse to shut out our chaotic, complicated society. Author and journalist Kathryn Bromwich clearly sympathizes with both views. In fact, … Read more

A Conversation with Patrick Mackie on “Mozart and Motion” – Chicago Review of Books

A Conversation with Patrick Mackie on “Mozart and Motion” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] A book that will unquestionably stand among the more poignant investigations of Mozart and his genius, Mozart and Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces, by poet and former Harvard visiting fellow Patrick Mackie, is a serious study of the composer’s character and music as it fits within the context of European manners … Read more

The Star-Bear | Tor.com

The Star-Bear | Tor.com

[ad_1] A Russian émigré poet living in Paris is visited by a mysterious bear with an agenda…   On a fine spring afternoon, the noted Russian émigré poet and fabulist Alexei Zerimov was seated at a sidewalk café, nursing his kir and working on a children’s story that he would later illustrate and hand-letter himself, … Read more

In Defense of Bars in “Last Call at Coogan’s” – Chicago Review of Books

In Defense of Bars in “Last Call at Coogan’s” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] The consumption of alcohol is falling, particularly amongst the young. Despite the persistent image of college life as four years of intoxication interrupted by occasional classes, 28% of 18-to-22 year-old American students do not drink. Amongst those who do not attend university, the figure is 30%. The pattern is repeated across high-income countries, with … Read more

From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks – A Cool History of a Hot Commodity” – Chicago Review of Books

From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks – A Cool History of a Hot Commodity” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] I first met Dr. Amy Brady in real life at a literary reading in Brooklyn. We knew each other through the Chicago Review of Books, where she served as Editor-in-Chief and I wrote book reviews. Since then, she has moved to New Haven and now works as the Executive Director of Orion Magazine and … Read more

A Queer Moon In The Heavens in “Uranians” – Chicago Review of Books

A Queer Moon In The Heavens in “Uranians” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Theodore McCombs’s debut collection, Uranians, is a remarkable achievement, a polished and varied set of stories: speculative, queer, and cerebral. The entire set shines on a prose level, from the off-hand description of a climate-ravaged San Francisco with “Hail, thick as eyes” in “Laguna Beach” to the repeated floral metaphors of the title story: … Read more

On Love, Trauma, and Music in “Notes on Her Color” – Chicago Review of Books

On Love, Trauma, and Music in “Notes on Her Color” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Notes on Her Color is not only a debut novel by Jennifer Neal, but also a musical composition. Each word is a note carefully considered before being etched onto the page with the hope of bringing art to life and feelings to the surface. Gabrielle is a young woman living in hell. Her father … Read more

An Interview with Lesley Harrison on “Kitchen Music” – Chicago Review of Books

An Interview with Lesley Harrison on “Kitchen Music” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] “My house holds sound / like the sea inside a shell,” writes Lesley Harrison in the poem “Convergence.” And this is the sense one has while reading Kitchen Music, a poetry collection filled with as much sea and wind as a house on the coast of an island. Conversing with a variety of artists … Read more