This week Karl Wolff reviews “Bitter Orange,” by Marshall Moore, about a gay man coming to terms with his superpower to turn invisible. Does that make him a hero or a villain? Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Bitter Orange, by Marshall Moore
Over at CCLaP I review “Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh,” by Thomas Glave, a new anthology of fiction and non-fiction works about prejudice, sexuality, and diaspora. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh, by Thomas Glave
This week I review the underground gay classic about hustlers and their world, John Rechy’s City of Night. Continue reading The NSFW Files: City of Night, by John Rechy
This book proves its usefulness in its good timing. Coleman and Weaver investigate the numerous pop cultural pieces here, analyzing how specific treatments reflect attitudes of society at large. Continue reading Reviews in Brief: Werewolves and Other Shapeshifters in Popular Culture, by Kimberley McMahon-Coleman and Roslyn Weaver
Karl Wolff reviews Firefly by Severo Sarduy (release date, March 2013), a writer praised by Roland Barthes, for his verbal richness and dreamlike evocation of pre-Castro Cuba. Continue reading Translation Tuesdays: Firefly, by Severo Sarduy
A Spy in the Ruins by Christopher Bernard constructs a postapocalyptic anti-narrative replete with verbal richness, political aggression, and erotic tenderness. Continue reading Critical Appraisals: A Spy in the Ruins, by Christopher Bernard
After an overlong hiatus, “The Art of Reviewing” returns with a profile of Roland Barthes, exploring his the French semiotician and literary critic expanded the subject matter for reviewers, his influence of pop culture studies, and his usefulness in curatorial practice. Continue reading The Art of Reviewing: Roland Barthes
Reappropriation: Camp, Kitsch, and Sincerity “When something is just bad (rather than Camp), it’s often because it is too mediocre in its ambition. The artist hasn’t attempted to do anything outlandish.” – “Notes on Camp” [1965], Susan Sontag “Need more clarification? To his fans Liberace was the epitome of cultured taste, but of course we know he was kitsch. However, unlike the not-quite-weird-enough musical stylings of ABBA, say, or the Village People, Liberace-style kitsch is so weird, so outré, that hipsters find it impossible to appropriate as cheese. Liberace didn’t make his work inappropriable on purpose; others, however, have. The … Continue reading Critic’s Notebook: Unpopular Causes, Part III
The Line of Beauty (2004), by Alan Hollinghurst Alan Hollinghurst reveals his mastery of English prose with The Line of Beauty, the 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel set in the decadent days of Thatcher’s Britain. In the novel, Nick Guest, a Henry James scholar, spends time as a houseguest of the Feddens. Gerald Fedden is the newly-elected Tory MP and lives with his wife and children in a glorious mansion in Notting Hill. Nick’s long-burning infatuation for Gerald’s son Toby gets extinguished and then transfigured in the two loves he meets. The first love is with Leo, a West Indian, … Continue reading Tiny Book Reviews
A Review with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes 1. A Culinary Introduction Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self explores and revels in decay and degeneration, gushing with bile and blood. The quartet of interconnected short stories focus on the liver, a bodily organ with interconnected lobes. The liver functions by processing toxins and connects to the gall bladder. People also consume liver as a delicacy. The dish “liver and onions” is a classic in American cuisine. I have eaten deer liver with onions and I enjoy the taste. Prior to preparing … Continue reading Liver: A Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes by Will Self
The Driftless Area Review 