Billy Porter Gets Real in Memoir ‘Unprotected’
Divine but not a diva, Billy Porter struggles and revels in the Ministry of Art. Memoir Unprotected is his book of revelation.
Books
Memoir and Criticism in Matthew Specktor’s ‘Always Crashing the Same Car’
As a critic of both films and literature, Matthew Specktor has a balanced touch that keeps the scales even in his memoir, Always Crashing in the Same Car.
Gianrico Carofiglio’s Three O’Clock in the Morning Gently Awakens the Mind
Gianrico Carofiglio’s drive for simplicity and directness in Three O’Clock in the Morning carries the reader along to clarity about fundamental truths.
‘Klara and the Sun’ Explores What Makes Us Tick
‘Klara and the Sun’ is dappled with themes of personal identity and death, in one form or another.
Bob Dylan Would Dig Michael Gray’s ‘Outtakes’
Michael Gray is the Bob Dylan of Dylan studies, a man whose Dylan criticism has done more to augment and illuminate Dylan’s art than all of his rivals combined.
Canonizing Donna Summer’s Disco Classic ‘I Feel Love’
This deep look into Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” explores how synthpop and new wave opened up new possibilities for genre and synth experimentation and more.
Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘Inseparable’ Resonates in Our Times
Simone de Beauvoir’s Inseparable reveals the devastating consequences of succumbing to conventions at the expense of one’s own autonomy and well-being.
Why Hasn’t Daphne Gottlieb Won a Lambda Literary Award?
As always, Daphne Gottlieb’s excellent Saint 1001 will please all of her readers – hetero and queer. Does that make her work “not queer enough” for Lambda?
Kate Chopin’s Technical Artistry in ‘The Awakening’
In just two passages of Kate Chopin’s 1899 feminist novel, The Awakening she artfully conveys the protagonist’s inner struggles with the powerful patriarchy.
Judge – or Let the Market Be the Judge
Michael W. Clune argues that a popular mantra about art – everyone’s judgment is equal – impedes our ability to imagine a world outside of the capitalist marketplace.
Peter Weiss and Political Reflections of a Novel Kind
Peter Weiss’ ‘The Aesthetics of Resistance, Vol I’ is a post-mortem on the failure to prevent Nazism and an exploration of how art can be a form of resistance.