For The Book Obsessed
[ad_1] Neel Patel’s Tell Me How to Be opens with both narrators spent: Akash and his mother, Renu, are weary and anxious. Decisions they made years ago have grown burdensome, seemingly inescapable: “No one ever told me that happiness was like a currency: that when it goes, it goes.” This is from Patel’s short story … Read more
[ad_1] The persecution of “fallen women” is a well-documented phenomenon in Western history, stemming back to the story of the first biblical woman, Eve. Yet records of girls and women shunned into Magdalene laundries throughout Ireland have long been hidden and destroyed. Such institutions were run as late as 1996, usually by Roman Catholic orders … Read more
[ad_1] The persecution of “fallen women” is a well-documented phenomenon in Western history, stemming back to the story of the first biblical woman, Eve. Yet records of girls and women shunned into Magdalene laundries throughout Ireland have long been hidden and destroyed. Such institutions were run as late as 1996, usually by Roman Catholic orders … Read more
[ad_1] Jenny Holzer’s art demands to be seen. For those unfamiliar with her work, Holzer is a neo-conceptual American artist known for delivering ideas through words in public spaces, such as projections on buildings, and benches etched with truisms. But in Alfaguara Prize-winning author Carla Guelfenbein’s new novel, One in Me I Never Loved translated … Read more
[ad_1] There are some stories that seem as if the only goal is to go as big as possible. Globe trotting adventures, dastardly villains, and always a bigger and brighter battle just over the horizon. Through stories like these, it can be easy to overlook the weirdness that happens even in your own community. In … Read more
[ad_1] Well, readers, we’ve made it to the end of another year. As the holiday scramble commences and the cold winds blow, we hope you’re taking time to care for yourself along with your loved ones, and are settling down before a warm fire with a good book, or two. December is usually a quieter … Read more
[ad_1] An interesting, if somewhat recondite, corner of the great novelistic universe is the study of literary ancestry:where a work comes from, what it grows from, and what grows from it—be it in theme, perspective, narrative, or technique. By studying the descendants and antecedents of a given novel, one can learn much about how the … Read more
[ad_1] One hundred and twenty one years after his death, Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde still resonates with readers, romantics and rebels all over the world. Still considered controversial by some—mostly when dissecting his personal life—his wit and outspokenness seem to have stood the test of time and, dare I say, more relevant than … Read more
[ad_1] Thanksgiving is upon us, and I’m especially grateful for my Chicago Review of Books colleagues, whose collaborative generosity and literary talents are matched by their passion for books of all kinds. I asked them an impossible question, which, as is my wont, turned in a multi-part query: what’s a book that you’re thankful for, or return … Read more
[ad_1] It’s always challenging to sum up a short story collection: each story can be as idea-rich as a novel, and good collections show off an author’s range at least as much as they gesture towards recurring themes. Charlie Jane Anders is an inventive writer with a dazzling skill for short stories, and her new … Read more