review – Page 87 – Reads A Lot

Portraits of the Poet in Cortney Lamar Charleston’s “Doppelgangbanger” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by Mandana Chaffa

[ad_1] It’s been five years since Cortney Lamar Charleston’s debut, and Doppelgangbanger is more than worth the wait: it’s a kaleidoscope of a collection effortlessly combining cultural signposts with philosophical ruminations about identity, place and self-determination. Charleston explores the ways that spirit and body can be restricted, harmed, and too often obliterated in our society … Read more

“The Delivery” is a Meta-Fictional Puppet Show with Little to Say – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by elliotfrank

[ad_1] In an interview for The Believer, graphic artist turned novelist Peter Mendelsund elaborated his own approach to literature by using a surprising comparison to another art: puppetry. The audience of a puppet show is observing two stories simultaneously, “the diegetic material that the puppets are performing, and the actions the puppeteer is performing.” In … Read more

Facing Divides in “The Kindest Lie” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by Clancey D'Isa

[ad_1] In Nancy Johnson’s debut novel, The Kindest Lie, a story of desire and identity unfolds around a young, Yale-educated Black chemical engineer named Ruth. Her story, told with attention and sincerity, is not a simple narrative of homecoming. Rather, Ruth, who returns to her Indiana hometown in the midst of an economic depression, comes … Read more

Everyone’s a Critic in “We Play Ourselves” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by Taylor Griggs

[ad_1] In 2019, after the release of her widely-lauded album “Norman Fucking Rockwell!,” Lana Del Rey got an unexpected bad review. Actually, it wasn’t a bad review at all: it was a thoughtful, insightful deep-dive that contained a few harsh sentences. Nethertheless, Del Rey sicced her Twitter followers on the reviewer, NPR’s Ann Powers, who … Read more

The Question of Conditioning in “The Echo Wife” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by Ian MacAllen

[ad_1] Centuries of religious and philosophical debate have centered on the question of whether we have free will or not, with modern neuroscience and psychology framed around the conflict between nurturing influences and natural biological predisposition. The debate sits at the center of Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife, a fast-paced, page-turning science fiction thriller delving … Read more

Living in the Little-Space-Between in “No One is Talking About This” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 17, 2021 by teddyburnette

[ad_1] In Patricia Lockwood’s debut novel, No One is Talking About This, there is a line after the birth of her sister’s child which highlights the balancing act attempted in this book: “It was a marvel how cleanly and completely this lifted her out of the stream of regular life.” Lockwood’s exquisite writing aims to … Read more

The Open Space of Uncertainty in “Rabbit Island” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 14, 2021 by Kat Solomon

[ad_1] “For me, ghosts are never the spirits of strangers. They are the people I love most dearly,” confesses the narrator of one of the stories in Elvira Navarro’s collection Rabbit Island. Translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, these stories often cross the line between delusion and reality, constructs that in Navarro’s hands prove … Read more

A Lively Graveyard of Intimacy in “100 Boyfriends” – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 14, 2021 by Garrett Biggs

[ad_1] When asked who he writes for in a recent interview, Brontez Purnell provided as good an answer as I’ve heard in years: “Ghosts” he said. And then, elaborating on his answer: “A bunch of disruptive faggots.” In his latest offering—100 Boyfriends—the two aren’t mutually exclusive. The narrator’s boyfriends are the book’s ghosts and its … Read more

Megan Stielstra’s First Books Are Getting a New Home This Summer with NU Press – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 14, 2021 by Sara Cutaia

[ad_1] It’s always cold this time of year, but when Megan Stielstra’s first two books quietly became available for pre-orders early in January, it got cool. Previously out of print, Stielstra’s collections Everyone Remain Calm and Once I Was Cool will now have a new home with Northwestern University Press this August. Both books are … Read more

Intimacy, Power and Connection in “Kink,” edited by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell – Chicago Review of Books

Book ReviewsFebruary 14, 2021 by Ian MacAllen

[ad_1] Kink, edited by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, is a titillating collection of stories about sex, fetish, love, and loneliness from a diverse group of literary authors. Although the collection includes detailed descriptions of sex acts, Kink is primarily an exploration of intimacy, power, and our human need to share an emotional bond. Communication is a … Read more