Reading the Expository Memoir in “Almost Brown” – Chicago Review of Books

Reading the Expository Memoir in “Almost Brown” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] In the mid-1950s, my great-uncle was a young Indian physicist in the United States, where he met and married a white Catholic woman from Boston. They were married for over sixty years, with three children and numerous grandchildren, and lived happily until both passed in their late eighties, within two years of each other. … Read more

An Interview with Julia Fine about “Maddalena and the Dark” – Chicago Review of Books

An Interview with Julia Fine about “Maddalena and the Dark” – Chicago Review of Books

[ad_1] Julia Fine is back. I wouldn’t say she necessarily went anywhere – she’s steadily published novels since her debut in 2018 – but with her most recent, Maddalena and the Dark, she’s triumphantly returning to your bookshelves with her signature dark feminist speculative fiction. And it’s a masterpiece.  Set in 18th century Venice, Maddalena … Read more

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

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