essays

Sharon Tate: Unwitting victims’ rights martyr

A new book chronicles the aftermath of the Manson family murders and the political movement they helped ignite

Rachel Monroe, LA Review of Books Tuesday, Apr 2, 2013 8:02 PM UTC
Life LA Review of Books, Books, essays

“Flickering Light” illuminates the history of neon

Author Christoph Ribbbat traces the evolution of one of the more charismatic elements in the periodic table

Ariana Kelly, LA Review of Books Sunday, Mar 31, 2013 6:00 PM UTC
Technology LA Review of Books, Books, Art

Have personal essays gotten too personal?

Yes or no, John Jeremiah Sullivan and others prove the genre's not the exclusive domain of hopeless narcissists

Janet Steen, The Weeklings Sunday, Mar 17, 2013 5:00 PM UTC
Life The Weeklings, essays

Things they lost in a tsunami

Years after the Japanese tsunami, debris from the wreckage continues to wash up on the shores of British Columbia

Erika Thorkelson, The Walrus Sunday, Mar 10, 2013 9:00 PM UTC
Life The Walrus, Canada, Japan, tsunami

I shook hands with a Klansman

As a liberal feminist, I thought David Duke was pure evil. But even the Grand Wizard of the KKK has a human side

Ronlyn Domingue, The Weeklings Sunday, Mar 10, 2013 1:00 PM UTC 29
Life The Weeklings, David Duke

“Vodou is like a gun” (and that’s how you spell it)

In a Brooklyn basement, practitioners of the Haitian religion summon ancient spirits, and defend their faith

Sylvia A. Harvey, Narratively Sunday, Mar 10, 2013 12:00 AM UTC 12
Social Narratively, essays, Religion

Post-Chávez, a new Venezuela?

The "crocodile charisma" of Hugo Chávez shaped Venezuela. Now, the nation lives in the shadow of his legacy

Jeffrey R. Webber, Jacobin Saturday, Mar 9, 2013 3:00 PM UTC
Politics Jacobin, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela

Sam Lipsyte’s latest: Less than the sum of its “Fun Parts”

In his new collection of short stories, the author of "The Ask" amuses himself -- and only occasionally his reader

Michael Bourne, LA Review of Books Thursday, Mar 7, 2013 7:58 PM UTC
Entertainment LA Review of Books, Books

Edward Gorey’s strange, curious world

The author's books tended toward the macabre, but there's an element of redemption in his ghoulish worldview VIDEO

Jillian Steinhauer, LA Review of Books Saturday, Feb 23, 2013 5:00 PM UTC
Entertainment Video, LA Review of Books, Art

Spanish capital en ruinas

Dispatches from Madrid, a city in political and economic turmoil.

Brian Patrick Eha, LA Review of Books Tuesday, Feb 19, 2013 4:42 PM UTC
Life LA Review of Books, Travel, Spain

Karen Russell’s vampires have bite

In her second story collection, Russell demonstrates her gifts for genre-bending and whimsical, exuberant prose

William Boyle, LA Review of Books Monday, Feb 18, 2013 5:00 PM UTC
Entertainment LA Review of Books

Ingmar Bergman, novelist

Largely unheralded, the Swedish director's fiction was no less haunting than his feature films

Kelsey Osgood, The American Reader Sunday, Feb 17, 2013 7:00 PM UTC
Life The American Reader

I worked hard for no pay — and I dug it

When I lived on a commune, I learned that some kinds of labor yield their own, non-monetary rewards

Rachel Monroe, Cluster Mag Sunday, Feb 10, 2013 11:00 PM UTC 12
Life Cluster Mag, essays

The baker’s lament

As a pastry chef, I watched my artwork vanish in seconds. But its ephemerality was also what made it beautiful

Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, The New Inquiry Tuesday, Feb 5, 2013 9:32 PM UTC
Life The New Inquiry, makeup, essays

Surviving my wife’s miscarriage

By most estimates, one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. It's harder to accept when you're one of the four

Brett Ortler, The Nervous Breakdown Tuesday, Feb 5, 2013 5:14 PM UTC
Life The Nervous Breakdown, life

Out of a newspaper strike dawned a new age in American letters

The New York Review of Books published its first issue 50 years ago, forever changing the literary conversation

Gerald Howard Friday, Feb 1, 2013 5:07 PM UTC
Entertainment Books, literature

Is essayist Eula Biss Joan Didion’s heiress apparent?

"Notes From No Man's Land" traverses the American culture and landscape to confront a long history of racism

Kyle Minor Thursday, Jan 31, 2013 8:00 PM UTC
Entertainment The Listener, audible, Audiobooks

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe to release a collection of “uncensored personal essays”

The gay rights advocate will share his thoughts on faith, government, athletics and human rights

Prachi Gupta Friday, Jan 18, 2013 4:23 PM UTC
Entertainment Chris kluwe, minnesota vikings

Halloween 2012: What’s scary?

This Halloween, six top writers reminisce about the things that used to scare them — and what scares them now

Peter Trachtenberg, Kate Christensen, Jennifer Gilmore, Julie Klam, Meg Wolitzer and Jonathan Lethem Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 10:11 PM UTC
Life Meg Wolitzer

Fearing fear itself

The author — no fan of Halloween — wonders why people would want to seek out the feeling of being terrified

Jennifer Gilmore Wednesday, Oct 31, 2012 9:00 PM UTC
Life Halloween 2012: What's scary?

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