Knocking Poetry Off Its Pedestal in “The Math Campers” – Chicago Review of Books

Knocking Poetry Off Its Pedestal in “The Math Campers” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] An extraordinary, often mesmerizing engagement with the nature of identity and other existential trappings, The Math Campers, Dan Chiasson’s new collection of poetry, is a meta-kaleidoscope of literature and literary influence. A geometric swirl of the many faces of the author’s family and friends (particularly his teenage sons), it is colored and blended by … Read more

Recovery and Reinvention in “Like a Bird” – Chicago Review of Books

Recovery and Reinvention in “Like a Bird” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] In My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies, author Resmaa Menakem challenges us to think of white supremacy as “white-body supremacy” because “every white-skinned body, no matter who inhabits it — and no matter what they think, believe, do, or say — automatically benefits from it.” In … Read more

The Layered Explorations of Self in “Piranesi” – Chicago Review of Books

The Layered Explorations of Self in “Piranesi” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Sixteen years after the publication of her breakout novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke’s second novel has arrived. The new novel, Piranesi, bears a family resemblance to its predecessor, sharing its unique creative vision and a detailed approach to the fantastic. Though these features appear in a very different time and place, … Read more

Obsession and Alternate Realities in “Red Pill” – Chicago Review of Books

Obsession and Alternate Realities in “Red Pill” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] We have all, at some point in our lives, awoken to find that something we used to believe is a lie. The world used to look one way, but now you can see right through it, the cracks and the fissures. A part of you is fractured, your self is changed, disconnected, and it … Read more

Finding the Fault Lines of American Society in “Carry” – Chicago Review of Books

Finding the Fault Lines of American Society in “Carry” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Like a murmuration of starlings, Toni Jensen’s new book Carry changes its shape constantly and effortlessly. Its subtitle is A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land, but this book is more than a memoir. It is also a revealing lexicon, a sharp analysis, a well-sourced argument, and a damning indictment. Its form changes even … Read more

Class and Conversations in “We Need To Talk” – Chicago Review of Books

Class and Conversations in “We Need To Talk” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Inequality may be as old as human society, but never has it been this extreme, quantifiable and remediable. We’ve seen everyone from the Pope to Bernie Sanders to Thomas Piketty break it down. In meme-speak, guillotine GIFs have been proliferating on Twitter since 2016. But COVID-19 has made the message irrefutable. The fallout from … Read more

Why Intelligence Fails and Succeeds in “The Spymasters” – Chicago Review of Books

Why Intelligence Fails and Succeeds in “The Spymasters” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Double agents, covert operations, moles, dead drops, deep-sixed tapes, election meddling, secret identities, enhanced interrogation, brush passes, assassinations — when it comes to spy work, there is no shortage of bizarre and misshapen determinants that capture one’s imagination. And if these things are happening, what else is going on? The possibilities seem endless, especially … Read more

Prince’s Bassist on the Purple One’s Genius and the Minneapolis Sound – Chicago Review of Books

Prince’s Bassist on the Purple One’s Genius and the Minneapolis Sound – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Imagine you’re a teenager waiting around in the parking lot of the 7-11 where you work for a stranger to pick you up and drive you to a job interview–with Prince. That’s a key moment in My Life in the Purple Kingdom, the enlightening new memoir from Brownmark, who played bass with Prince and … Read more