Reviews Archives

12 min

Ripley, Reprised

Although there's a lot going on under the surface of this slim novel, Tyler's Last is, first and foremost, a lot of fun, an absurd, cleverly-plotted romp across continents with generous helpings of sex and violence along the way. It's a brilliant parody, and it's also much more than that.

10 min

A Map of Betrayal

Throughout his thirty years as a CIA agent spying for the People’s Republic of China, Gary Weimin Shang, the protagonist in Ha Jin’s psychological novel A Map of Betrayal, betrays…

6 min

The Sound of Things Falling

There is this about the novel The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez: The push and pull between reason and emotion, choice and chance, life and death—a trio of diametrical pairings played against each other in the life of the narrator, Antonio Yammara.

2 min

On Lucky Shores

In On Lucky Shores, Kerry Donovan introduces guitarist, singer, drifter Chet Walker. When we first meet Walker, he’s walking the Rocky Mountains, away from his troubled past and to, he…

18 min

Reading Obama

James T. Kloppenberg has written an important book that demystifies Barack Obama. In his book, Reading Obama, Kloppenberg reveals a man who is deeply embedded in the American political and cultural tradition of civic virtue.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

Introverts need less outside stimulation than extroverts. They shut the door while extroverts keep it open. Introverts work slowly and deliberately, whereas extroverts work quickly and multitask. Introverts’ nervous systems…

5 min

Chapbook 2011

Surrounded by nature, the poet immerses himself in its physicality, a primal act that leads him to an understanding, perhaps even an epiphany, that life and death are everywhere, but you can be alive and free in any case.

10 min

You’ll Find Me in the Darkness, If I Let You

The poetry of Anthony Perales comprises straightforward and telling narratives about growing up in San Pedro, chasing the dragon, spending time in prison, learning native doctrine in the desert of Southern California, losing love, and finding poetry.

3 min

Flutes and Tomatoes: A Memoir with Poems

Flutes and Tomatoes: A Memoir With Poems by Wade Stevenson is not at all what I imagined it would be. Let me start with a confession: poetry confounds me. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the cadence, the sentiment, the succinct nature of the writing; it’s just that I don’t always understand it.

17 min

Falling Out of Time

Sometimes a book tears open the fabric of being and forces the reader to question the meaning of existence. A masterpiece of existentialist inquiry, Falling Out of Time by the eminent Israeli author David Grossman is such a book.

All Content