Sunday, January 1 1995
The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn
If the universe expands and contracts like a yo-yo, what effect does that have on time and its relationship to humanity? We would all wind up living our lives in reverse.
The Modern Fantastic: The Films of David Cronenberg by Michael Grant
The utility of the majority of the essays is limited, hardly explaining the film (or films) that the authors attempt to unravel, and doing little to explain science fiction/horror films or Cronenberg's oeuvre.
Mind the Doors by Zinovy Zinik
[Zinovy Zinik's stories] seem to fall on the line where surrealism and magical realism collide, where the waking world is still the dream.
A Massive Swelling. Celebrity Re-Examined As A Grotesque Crippling Disease by Cintra Wilson
If she [Wilson] acknowledged more often how the obsession with celebrity results from such systematic social inequities, 'A Massive Swelling' would be something other than an occasionally amusing but ultimately unsatisfying exercise in attitude.
Material Matters: Appliqués by the Weya Women of Zimbabwe and Needlework by South African Coll
The stories told in the appliqués are about AIDS, unemployment, crime, wife-beating, and baby-dumping. They're strong, gutsy and don't pull punches. These are appliqués with balls.
The Museum of Unconditional Surrender - PopMatters - Books - Reviews
dana”>“Progressive ideas that are . . . appropriate at one historical moment, can, in time, fade and decay or become defensive in the face of…
Men at Play: A Working Understanding of Professional Hockey by Michael Robidoux
The story [Michael Robidoux] presents is shocking, describing the daily life of the average hockey player in a world that relies upon the strict socialization of young Canadian boys, often 13 and 14 years old, into a system run by multibillion-dollar corporations that depend upon young men to skate around on fake ice and physically beat the crap out of each other.
Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion and Romantic Obsession by Rosemary Sullivan
Like desire itself, her prose and her message are not always comfortable. They aren't easy to hear, and although she reserves her text for discussion by and for women, it has many implications for everyone who has ever obsessed or desired another.
The Language of Comics: Word and Image Edited by Robin Varnum and Christina T. Gibbons
If comics are words and images together, then logically (Logic? Comics? Together? Dogs driving trucks? Madness!) the words can follow the images (or verse visa) sequentially or 'in the readers head' to make a sequence of 'images.'"
The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld by Christine Wiltz
Norma Wallace and her operations are presented as a historical force that fused crime and punishment, high culture and low culture together during a period of New Orleans history when below the belt was above the law.
Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America’s Greatest Rock Critic - PopMatters - Book
It’s hard to imagine that Jim DeRogatis’s fine book on Lester Bangs won’t become, before too long, a movie. Not a lavishly produced biopic like…
The Lantern Bearers by Ronald Frame
Ronald Frame creates an eerie story rapt with betrayal, envy and obsession.
Lester Leaps: The Life and Times of Lester ‘Pres’ Young In by Douglas Henry Daniels- PopMatters Book
He was bop before bop was hip and could swing with the best of them.
Lowell Limpett and Two Short Stories by Ward Just
According to Ward Just, one day he sat down a novelist and got up a playwright. It wasn't really that simple. With 'Lowell Limpett', Ward Just makes it seem that way.
Looking For Poetry: Poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Rafael Alberti, with Songs from the Quec
We see a pretty fair representation of the urges and circumstances of our planet in April 2002.
Love Her Madly by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
Has more twists and turns in it than a Texas sidewinder, and just about as much bite and venom, too.
The Late Great Johnny Ace And The Transition From R&B To Rock ‘n’ Roll by James M. Salem
Johnny Ace's influence on the development of American music was, if not quite as seismic as Elvis Presley's, an essential element in the creation of the musical revolution of the mid-Fifties.
Liberty’s Excess by Lidia Yuknavitch
The body is Yuknavitch's medium, and she puts it through its paces here. Her most powerful stories subject their protagonists to extremes of delight and torment -- when these characters feel, they feel in spades.
