Books
Jeff Chon focuses on the weaknesses that see violence as an expression of strength: sexism and racism, an obsession with identity that devolves into an ideological search for purity.
This is an important book, a powerful account of the decline of California as America’s paradise.
“The suburbs of Los Angeles are so often neglected in literature and film because they are so seemingly impervious to adoration.”
Penny, whose many moods are sensitively drawn in this softly colored volume, is, perhaps like all cats, a philosopher.
Chronicling Stankonia is an engaging read, one that adroitly balances rigorous academic research with a deeply personal narrative about Black life and art in the post-Civil Rights Era in the South.
“I don’t work the system anymore, except as a last resort: I aim instead to bypass it. The better I have gotten at circumventing gatekeepers, the more successful my writing career has been.”
In the process of exploring the ideas that shaped Lorraine Hansberry’s understanding of her art and the world, the volume confirms the writer’s relevance during these troubled but potentially transformative times.
The current rage for inserting the personal/confessional in everything from cookbooks to literary criticism can go too far.
A singular muscularity infuses these short stories, a confidence that astonishes.
Richard Thompson’s memoir displays flashes of his writerly talents, but the volume feels a bit less immediate than one might hope.
Arts Remembrance: Sonny Rollins, Jazz’s ‘Saxophone Colossus,’ Dies at 95