Chicago
‘I am haunted by waters’: Norman Maclean and his lyrical ‘little blue book’
The author of A River Runs Through It emerges as wiry, sardonic, compassionate and inspirational from Rebecca McCarthy’s trenchant memoir
No laughing matter: The Material, by Camille Bordas, reviewed
A graduate course at the University of Chicago teaches stand-up to a group of aspiring young comedians. But the more you analyse humour, the less funny it becomes
On the road with Danny Lyon
The celebrated photojournalist describes his peripatetic youth recording revolution in Haiti, hunger and homelessness in Mexico and the civil rights movement in the US
Ethel, Ella and all that jazz: the soundtrack of a Chicago childhood
Margo Jefferson’s Constructing a Nervous System compresses memoir and cultural criticism into one slim, explosive volume, and in doing so…
Wrapped up in satire, a serious lesson about the fine line between success and scandal
Have you heard of champing? Neither had I. Turns out it’s camping in a field beside a deserted church. When…
America sees red: how fury prompted the slide into Trumpism
After leaving college more than two decades ago, Evan Osnos landed a job on the Exponent Telegram, one of two…
Jussie Smollett, reigning queen of the gaslight
MAGA country’s most famous resident wants his C-list career back. And some of the most despicable cretins on the left…
Do all black lives matter to BLM?
‘I understand black lives matter. But that’s not my movement, right now. My movement is to let them know that…
Black Lives Matter is a state-backed religion
‘Protest’ often feels inadequate as a characterization for the public exhibitions that have erupted nationwide over the past several weeks.…
Pity the shopkeepers
Small businesses in America have been hit by a devastating double whammy. Stores that managed to survive the economic shutdown…
Here in freezing Chicago we’re secretly rooting for global warming
One of the few pleasures of advancing age is that, no matter how awful some looming catastrophe may be, you…
Acid reign
In 1988–9, British youth culture underwent the biggest revolution since the 1960s. The music was acid house, the drug: Ecstasy.…
The Making of Zombie Wars is Aleksandar Hemon at his hilarious best
In the afterword to this sixth book, Aleksandar Hemon dedicates a word of thanks to his agent for keeping a…
