Peep Show: by Joshua Braff Peep Show by Joshua Braff Rating: 3.0/5.0 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill The inner workings of Hasidic Judaism and the evolution of modern porn make for an unlikely cultural juxtaposition; yet it is through the exploration of their inevitable clashes and unexpected commonalities that Joshua Braff approaches his compelling and occasionally surprising new coming-of-age story. Peep Show, Braff’s sophomore novel … Read More
Debut: Truman Capote: Other Voices, Other Rooms Debut novels are funny things. There’s a whole gamut of strange drives behind them, from the overwhelming ambition and hunger for fame of some authors, to the necessity to exorcise private demons in a public kind of way, to the need to climb past the shoulders of whatever early influences still cling. For Truman Capote, it seems only the former … Read More
(Don’t) Revisit: The Mothman Prophecies (Don’t) Revisit: The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel 1975 Thirty five years after its UFO-packed pages first beamed their way onto bookshelves worldwide, John Keel’s The Mothman Prophecies remains a sacred cow in the world of metaphysical nonfiction – even if smarmy naysayers will discount the entire genre as an oxymoron. In terms of premises, few books of the past … Read More
Under What Stars by Ryan J. Davidson Under What Stars by Ryan J. Davidson Rating: 4.0/5.0 Ampersand Books Ryan J. Davidson’s first collection of poetry, Under What Stars, starts out ballsy- a Kerouac quote precedes the first poem, acting as a sort of benediction upon the proceedings. “My beloved,” Saint Jack says, “who wills not to love me: My Life which cannot love me: I seduce both.” … Read More
Rock On: An Office Power Ballad: by Dan Kennedy Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy Rating: 2.0/5.0 Algonquin Books Much of Dan Kennedy’s Rock On: An Office Power Ballad is as tedious and ennui-inducing as the mainstream music acts and corporate culture he lampoons throughout the book. Based on the writer’s experiences as an Atlantic Records employee during that label’s clusterfuck 2000s, Kennedy certainly had plenty … Read More
Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah – A New Biography: by Tim Footman Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah – A New Biography by Tim Footman Rating: 3.0/5.0 Chrome Dreams Why does it feel like books on musicians are so insistently amateurish? Authors get stately, insightful tributes handled with gravity and professionalism. Musicians, it seems, are usually stuck with dashed-off, over-dramatic, under-researched tributes, lying like hidden traps to snatch up hungry fans. Hallelujah, the 11th bio … Read More
R.I.P.: Howard Zinn (1922-2010) When I turned 18, the summer before going off to college, my dad gave me a book titled A People’s History of the United States: 1942-Present. Inside, he had inscribed: “Official Histories are always written from the point of view of the winner–this one isn’t.” I didn’t think much of it at the time, and I certainly didn’t read it … Read More
R.I.P.: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010) “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where i was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to … Read More
Revisit: Couples: by John Updike Revisit: Couples by John Updike Ballantine Books 1968 Revisit is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that now deserve a second look. “It’s sex that disorders our normally ordered lives,” Philip Roth writes in The Dying Animal. Most of John Updike’s characters, his bored women and permanently restless men, are familiar with this concept, but their sexual transgressions read … Read More
Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep On Buying No Matter What: by Lee Eisenberg Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep On Buying No Matter What by Lee Eisenberg Rating: 2.5/5.0 Free Press Whether we are buying toothpaste at the grocery store, throwing down an entire paycheck on a designer handbag or ordering eco-friendly hemp clothing online, shopping is an integral component of life in America–recession or not. Moreover, companies are constantly marketing to … Read More