Just Because You’re Paranoid…
David Aaronnovitch’s survey of global conspiracy theories ably debunks chestnuts old and new, but avoids closer analysis of what inspires them in the first place.
Reviews
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Life Is Not Karaoke Booth
In this debut novel, an American woman running from personal tragedy falls headlong into the confusions and solaces of Japanese culture.
King of a Hundred Horsemen
As with much French poetry, the idée fixe of King of a Hundred Horsemen concerns the problematics of desire, and several of the passages are so euphonic in the original…
Straight Outta Nebraska
In Jami Attenberg’s new novel, a woman flees her comfortable life and finds a mixed bag of possibilities in Sin City.
The Best of It
Kay Ryan has been compared to Emily Dickinson, and I like to imagine Dickinson and Marianne Moore reading her with sly commiseration. Unlike some poets with recognizable styles, Ryan does…
American History X-treme
A former neo-Nazi’s memoir describes a violent life in the white supremacist movement and his transformative experiences in prison.
Teenagers from Mars
Peter Bognanni’s first novel mixes punk rock and the wild creativity of Buckminster Fuller into a tender and believable chronicle of teen sorrow.
Postcards from the Edge
“Big American Trip addresses our insecurities as artists, lovers, and citizens who lack the ability to understand one another, regardless of which language we speak.”
Twenty and Bored and Alive
This voice is neither howl, yowl, nor whisper, but something more like a quiet monotone, slightly ironic and yet also depressed, lonely and, at times, compellingly vulnerable.
The Cost of Living
A new volume of stories by Mavis Gallant traces the writer’s development from early stories of bewilderment and disappointment to the sharp, incisive later work of a master.
Heart of Glass
Ali Shaw’s novel concerns a modern-day Midas, a cold and inhospitable island, and a young woman whose body is inexorably transforming.
Mutations of Meaning
A first novel by playwright Jillian Weise tackles the moral and ethical questions surrounding both medical research and human relationships.