Los Angeles Review of Books

LARB members are invited to join us for a cocktail hour in the garden of the Wende. Sign up as a member today to save your spot! lareviewofbooks.org/membership

A flier for the Naming the Unknown event

LARB and the Planetary Program at the Berggruen Institute are thrilled to present Naming the Unknown, exploring how language evolves to name and make sense of emerging phenomena.

Free and open to public—RSVP now: lareviewofbooks.org/event/naming...

“Schools have removed everything from William Faulkner’s novels to books designed to help victims of sexual violence.”

John Downes-Angus on Samuel Cohen’s “Banning Books in America: Not a How-To”: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/banning-books-america-samuel-cohen-censorship-libraries-education/

The cover of Will There Ever Be Another You

Tess Pollok interviews Patricia Lockwood speaks to Tess Pollok about approaching her latest book, "Will There Ever Be Another You": “I tend to think and write from very, very deeply inside myself.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/patricia-lockwood-will-there-ever-be-another-you/

LARB Quarterly #48: 15th Anniversary Issue | Los Angeles Review of Books

Thrilled that my essay, "Fear and Writing in Xinjiang," was chosen by the editors of the @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social to be included in their 15th Anniversary Anthology!

Thanks to @jwassers.bsky.social and @bspivey.bsky.social for commissioning the piece and for their editorial work!

Doing Someone Else’s Crossword | Los Angeles Review of Books The Francis Crick of Matthew Cobb’s new biography was both the consummate insider and a scientific outlier.

"Many biographies use a singular life as a kaleidoscope to refract a historical period and view its patterns. Cobb’s biography does something different."

Angela Creager reviews Matthew Cobb’s new book: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/francis-crick-james-watson-double-helix-dna-biography

A stack of LARB's 15th anniversary edition of the quarterlies stacked in front of the LA landscape

They're here.

Welcome to LARB's latest Quarterly, the "15th Anniversary Issue," out today. Join now to get your copy and choose your own cover: https://lareviewofbooks.org/membership

Fascinating article about Claire Douglas, who was married to J.D. Salinger at the height of his literary fame and who served as the model for his character Franny Glass. After their divorce in 1967, she eventually became a highly-respected Jungian analyst and scholar.

A folding screen with a painting on it

"Parallels reveal themselves in creative manifestos from both sides of the Pacific."

Tim Brinkhof on an exhibition that charts the ties between East Asia and Latin America: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/somos-pacifico-singapore-mexico-trade-route-exhibition-review/

The cover of Down Time

"If something survives the decimation, it’ll be art."

Adam Straus reviews "Down Time" by Andrew Martin: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/down-time-andrew-martin-millennial-novel-early-work/

It Really Can Happen Here | Los Angeles Review of Books What the transnational links among fascist movements in the 1930s can tell us about the Far Right today.

"Fascist ideas were hiding in plain sight."

Juliette Bretan on what the transnational links among fascist movements in the 1930s can tell us about the Far Right today: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/transnational-fascism-united-states-nazis-hungary-yugoslavia-germany/

A green house in the desert

a black and white photo of a doc running

"The work treats the human figure as a kind of punctuation mark in a landscape that is indifferent, if not actively hostile, to the figure’s presence."

Andrew Witt on John Divola's desert: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/john-divola-dogs-chasing-my-car-isolated-houses/

Finding Our God-Terms | Los Angeles Review of Books The work of literary critic Mark Edmundson offers a powerful vision for recentering the American university.

"We are word-making creatures, and our words, “at their best”... offer hope and purpose, a way of figuring out who we are, who we have been, and where we might be going." lareviewofbooks.org/article/mark... in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social

A flier with information on Sierra Crane Murdoch's Writing in Place class

What role should place play in our nonfiction writing? Let Sierra Crane Murdoch be your guide in our upcoming Spring educational workshop. Class is online at 5-7 p.m. PST from April 14 to May 19, 2026. Sign up today: https://lareviewofbooks.org/event/writing-in-place-w-sierra-crane-murdoch/

Time-Wasting, Truth-Wasting Exercises | Los Angeles Review of Books Samuel Cohen’s anthology on book banning diagnoses a recent swell in censorship that’s problematic for more reasons than you’d think.

Wrote about @samcohen.bsky.social’s book banning volume for @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social. The volume invites us to consider why books matter—and it shows the many ways they’re under attack, even here in progressive NYC.

lareviewofbooks.org/article/bann...

Finding Our God-Terms | Los Angeles Review of Books The work of literary critic Mark Edmundson offers a powerful vision for recentering the American university.

"When I see my students scrolling away their formative years on a computer screen, most of them don’t look happy." Joshua Hall on Mark Edmundson the difficult pleasure of finding god-terms: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mark-edmundson-literary-criticism-american-university-humanities-essay/

So grateful for this thoughtful, generous review: "Those of us who care about what books can do should consider what these contributors have to tell us."

the cover of Banning Books in America

“Cohen describes books as ‘the oldest and best place where opinions and impressions and whole worlds are captured and recorded.’ He’s right.”

John Downes-Angus on “Banning Books in America.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/banning-books-america-samuel-cohen-censorship-libraries-education/

“When you’re writing about mental illness, there’s always a lot of fear around being misunderstood or not being believed.”

Patricia Lockwood discusses her book "Will There Ever Be Another You" with Tess Pollok: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/patricia-lockwood-will-there-ever-be-another-you/

Nadia Davids on her new novel, "Cape Fever": "My introduction to the uncanny was through women who were powerful, funny, persuasive storytellers talking amongst themselves, so perhaps that was the seed."

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/nadia-davids-cape-fever-south-africa-novel-pandemic

A still from Sound of Falling of a woman looking at herself in the mirror

"'Sound of Falling' leaves us unsure of the extent to which trauma and strength are intertwined, passed down in equal measure from one generation of women to the next."

Marya Gates on Mascha Schilinski’s "Sound of Falling": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/perhaps-youre-not-yourself-but-her/

Shelter in Place | Los Angeles Review of Books The battle for Minnesota’s public.

"There were more agents than family physicians in Minnesota—a reminder that this administration, like many previous ones, values enforcement over care."

Kate Collier on resisting ICE: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/minneapolis-operation-metro-surge-immigration-authoritarian-mutual-aid

Want to keep up with everything LARB? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest on all our events, writing, book clubs, and more. https://lareviewofbooks.org/about/newsletter/

A black and white photograph of dogs running in the desert

"What the camera is able to channel is this fact of motion in a raw and feral state."

Andrew Witt on the movement and energy captured in John Divola's newly reissued "Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert."

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/john-divola-dogs-chasing-my-car-isolated-houses/

the cover of Long Distance

“There’s a disconnect in these stories, as in life, between the way one would like to be seen and the drudgery of the everyday.”

Angelica Hankins reviews Aysegül Savaş’ “Long Distance”: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/long-distance-aysegul-savas-short-stories-hankins-review/

Sadism as Psychotherapy | Los Angeles Review of Books Jon Stock’s recent book examines the deplorable career of prominent psychiatrist Willam Sargant and his brand of bio-therapeutics.

"At their deaths, both men were lionized for their contributions to psychiatry. For decades afterward, those who served under them remained silent."

Andrew Scull on Jon Stock’s "The Sleep Room": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/william-sargant-electroshock-lobotomy-sleep-room-jon-stock/

"Many biographies use a singular life as a kaleidoscope to refract a historical period and view its patterns. Cobb’s biography does something different."

Angela Creager reviews Matthew Cobb’s new book: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/francis-crick-james-watson-double-helix-dna-biography

"The psychic intrusions experienced by Soraya are as much a way of metabolizing the profound cruelty of colonialism as they are about private loss."

Nadia Davids speaks with Katya Apekina about her new novel: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/nadia-davids-cape-fever-south-africa-novel-pandemic/

A woman floating in a lake in a still from Sound of Falling

"The women and girls who populate 'Sound of Falling' pull us into their orbit, daring us to see them, even if they cannot see themselves."

Marya Gates on the influence of Francesca Woodman’s photographs on "Sound of Falling": https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/perhaps-youre-not-yourself-but-her/