The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China Wave of Materials by Zhu Jinshi 2007/2019, installation photograph, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, © Zhu Jinshi, courtesy of Zhu Jinshi and Pearl Lam Galleries, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Water Records, by Song Dong, 2010, video projection, © Song Dong, Photo courtesy of Pace Gallery.

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The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

Reading the Rainbow: A Pride Reading List

Sarah Neilson invites us to read the rainbow in a broad and diverse LGBTQIA+ reading list for Pride Month....

Cruising for Sex, Cruising the Political: Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime”

Michael Nava reviews Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.”...

Blowing the Philosopher’s Fuses: Michel Foucault’s LSD Trip in the Valley of Death

James Penner takes a trip through “Foucault in California” by Simeon Wade, which chronicles the day when a great French philosopher blew his mind....

Writing About Binyavanga Wainaina

Raksha Vasudevan

On the Kenyan author’s rich — and discomfiting — intellectual legacy....

Navigating the Dark Corners: Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories”

Claire Kim looks at the alluring, dark tales in Karen Russell’s new short story collection, “Orange World and Other Stories.”...

The Search for What Makes Us Human: The Killer Ape Account of the Mid-20th Century

Melinda Baldwin

Does violence make humans unique? Melinda Baldwin reviews Erika Lorraine Milam’s “Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America.”...

The Quest for B. Cooper

David MacDougall

On the trail of a mysterious big-game hunter in colonial-era East Africa....

Mel Brooks, Boomer’s Comedian

Mel Brooks looked for boundaries to cross and conventions to subvert, but his best work rarely came from crossing social and political boundaries....

The Soul in the Machine: On Peter Bebergal’s “Strange Frequencies”

Diana Walsh Pasulka

Diana Walsh Pasulka reviews Peter Bebergal’s "Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural."...

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "Tell-Tale Hearts"

Jane Hu - June 17, 2019

For Dear TV, Jane Hu and Phil Maciak put Big Little Lies, season two, episode two under surveillance—it's disappointing....

RELIGION, HISTORY

An Endless Crusade

Udi Greenberg - June 17, 2019

Giuliana Chamedes's "A Twentieth-Century Crusade" is a work of tremendous ambitions and impressive panoramic scope....

FICTION, GENDER & SEXUALITY

The Scourge of Himpathy

Tatiana Dubin - June 17, 2019

Rachel Cline’s new novel takes on the psychology and politics of the #MeToo movement....

PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY, MEMOIR & ESSAY

Blowing the Philosopher’s Fuses: Michel Foucault’s LSD Trip in the Valley of Death

James Penner - June 17, 2019

James Penner takes a trip through “Foucault in California” by Simeon Wade, which chronicles the day when a great French philosopher blew his mind....

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DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "Tell-Tale Hearts"

For Dear TV, Jane Hu and Phil Maciak put Big Little Lies, season two, episode two under surveillance—it's disappointing....

RELIGION, HISTORY

An Endless Crusade

Udi Greenberg - June 17, 2019

Giuliana Chamedes's "A Twentieth-Century Crusade" is a work of tremendous ambitions and impressive panoramic scope....

FICTION, GENDER & SEXUALITY

The Scourge of Himpathy

Tatiana Dubin - June 17, 2019

Rachel Cline’s new novel takes on the psychology and politics of the #MeToo movement....

PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY, MEMOIR & ESSAY

Blowing the Philosopher’s Fuses: Michel Foucault’s LSD Trip in the Valley of Death

James Penner - June 17, 2019

James Penner takes a trip through “Foucault in California” by Simeon Wade, which chronicles the day when a great French philosopher blew his mind....

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, HISTORY, CULTURAL STUDIES

The Search for What Makes Us Human: The Killer Ape Account of the Mid-20th Century

Melinda Baldwin

Does violence make humans unique? Melinda Baldwin reviews Erika Lorraine Milam’s “Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America.”...

The Wide, Forbidding Cosmos: The Weird Fiction of John Langan

Paul StJohn Mackintosh - June 16, 2019

John Langan’s latest collection of weird fiction is a fresh waypoint, if not a landmark, in his creative journey....

RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY & CRITICAL THEORY

Jewish Identity on the Move

David Lipset - June 16, 2019

David Lipset reviews two new essay collections about Jewish identity, "Freud and Monotheism" and "Jews and the Ends of Theory."...

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION

A Little Private Space: A Conversation with Heike Geissler

Kate Durbin speaks to Heike Geissler, author of the autofictional novel “Seasonal Associate,” translated from German by Katy Derbyshire....

LARB LIT, POETRY

Concerning the Meaning Molecule in Poetry

Brenda Hillman - June 15, 2019

"Long ago a man told me, If you write poetry / keep your subjects small;" Brenda Hillman's poem "Concerning the Meaning Molecule in Poetry."...

Parallel Deterioration: On Brian Evenson’s “Song for the Unraveling of the World”

Nathan Scott McNamara

In “Song for the Unraveling of the World,” Brian Evenson renders the world as a place of infinite and paralyzing delusion....

AROUND THE WORLD, NONFICTION

The Quest for B. Cooper

David MacDougall - June 14, 2019

On the trail of a mysterious big-game hunter in colonial-era East Africa....

GENDER & SEXUALITY

Reading the Rainbow: A Pride Reading List

Sarah Neilson - June 14, 2019

Sarah Neilson invites us to read the rainbow in a broad and diverse LGBTQIA+ reading list for Pride Month....

Cannibal

Anna Journey - June 14, 2019

"I’ve been thinking a lot about cannibals lately. Fairy tale cannibals. Biblio-cannibals." Anna Journey's essay appears in LARB's Occult Issue....

FICTION, MEMOIR & ESSAY

No Filters: On Kathleen Collins’s “Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary”

Trisha R. Thomas

Trisha R. Thomas is inspired by “Notes from a Black Woman’s Diary,” the posthumous collection of Kathleen Collins’s writing edited by Nina Lorez Collins....

RELIGION, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The Soul in the Machine: On Peter Bebergal’s “Strange Frequencies”

Diana Walsh Pasulka - June 13, 2019

Diana Walsh Pasulka reviews Peter Bebergal’s "Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural."...

Navigating the Dark Corners: Karen Russell’s “Orange World and Other Stories”

Claire Kim - June 13, 2019

Claire Kim looks at the alluring, dark tales in Karen Russell’s new short story collection, “Orange World and Other Stories.”...

All Included

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ — Ghosts? Alida said. In ...

MEMOIR & ESSAY, HISTORY, GENDER & SEXUALITY

Cruising for Sex, Cruising the Political: Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime”

Michael Nava - June 12, 2019

Michael Nava reviews Alex Espinoza’s “Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime.”...

FILM, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Mel Brooks, Boomer’s Comedian

Chris Yogerst - June 12, 2019

Mel Brooks looked for boundaries to cross and conventions to subvert, but his best work rarely came from crossing social and political boundaries....

Mother of Cups

This piece appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal: The Occult, No. 22 To receive the Quarterly Journal, become a member or purchase at our bookstore. ¤ Have you seen Buffy? Her ...

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Deana Lawson’s Curtains

Megan N. Liberty - June 11, 2019

Megan Liberty appreciates Deana Lawson's work as well as her new book, "Deana Lawson: An Aperture Monograph."...

AROUND THE WORLD, FICTION, MEMOIR & ESSAY

Writing About Binyavanga Wainaina

Raksha Vasudevan - June 11, 2019

On the Kenyan author’s rich — and discomfiting — intellectual legacy....

Looking at the Supreme Court’s Growing Partisan Divide Through Elite-Colored Glasses

Alyson Claire Decker - June 11, 2019

Alyson Claire Decker reviews Lawrence Baum and Neal Devins's "The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court."...

DEAR TELEVISION

Big Little Lies, "What Have They Done?"

For Dear Television, Phil Maciak considers season two of Big Little Lies, and what director Andrea Arnold has in store for people with kitchens like that....

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THE ALLURE OF MATTER: MATERIAL ART FROM CHINA

The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China

The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China brings together 34 works from the past four decades in which conscious material choice has become a symbol of the artists’ expression at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The Allure of Matter features 21 of the most important and influential Chinese artists working today, including Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lin Tianmiao, Song Dong, Xu Bing, Yin Xiuzhen, Zhan Wang, Zhang Huan, and more. The show runs from Jun 2, 2019 to Jan 5, 2020.

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John Waters: Holding Court with the King of Filth

John Waters discusses his new memoir "Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder."......

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The 58th Venice Biennale Exhibition: Meet Curator Ralph Rugoff

The LA Times Book Prize Winners: Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Carl Phillips

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