Barbara Ehrenreich’s one of those virtuous full-immersion journalists whose work inspires more admiration than envy. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (2001), in which she recounted working within America’s hardscrabble underworld of hand-to-mouth laborers, was an eye-opening, compassionate, frequently funny, and dispiriting piece of reportage. It was also an unlikely success story, … Read more
After a six-year hiatus, David Treuer (Little and The Hiawatha) returns with a pair of titles that make an audacious claim for a prominent place among Native American writers. An Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation, Treuer teaches English at the University of Minnesota, but his focus remains on the history and current plight of … Read more
“Astonishing” doesn’t begin to describe the achievement of Octavian Nothing, which is ostensibly, purportedly, and quite incredibly being marketed as a young-adult novel. The latest from M.T. Anderson, whose previous novel Feed was a National Book Award finalist, is as challenging, brilliant, technically ambitious—and, let’s not forget, jaw-droppingly good—as any book you’ll get your hands … Read more
It seems impossible that Cormac McCarthy published his first book more than forty years ago. And even after ten novels, there may be no other American writer who has forged such an inimitable style (even if the Faulkner influence has always been apparent) and honed it to such a spare, violent vision of American history … Read more
BReaders captivated by Lost in the City, Edward P. Jones’ 1992 collection of spare, mostly contemporary stories of life in some of the bleakest neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., had to wait more than ten years for a followup. While The Known World could hardly be called a disappointment—it did garner Jones the Pulitzer Prize—as a … Read more
Personality conflicts and petty infighting have killed so many great bands that Doug Martsch was probably on to something when he decided to form a group that would occasionally shed its members, like a molting snake. With his revolving cast of players, the founder of Built to Spill created a consistent sound marked by spaced-out, … Read more
A whole day of live, outdoor, Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz? Used to be such things simply did not happen around here. More unusual still, Uptown Row is not a new music club, but rather one of the upstart retail/residential developments changing the face of West Lake Street. Gypsy jazz, which blends American swing and Parisian … Read more
To celebrate its twentieth year of craft-brewing quality barley pop, the esteemed St. Paul brewery is serving the best brew in town and inviting a bunch of great homegrown bands out to Harriet Island to watch you drink it. Worth the price of admission alone is a rare Suburbs reunion and an appearance by Richard … Read more
Rollins turns seventy-six this month, but he’s not one to spend his golden years reminiscing; he’ll leave fans and scholars to ponder over his younger days, when he created the definitive sound of 50s jazz with Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Max Roach. Instead, he’s on to new things, including an album, Sonny, Please, that … Read more
Life in Russia has always been the best of times and the worst of times, inspiring a national malady of excessive melodrama. On the bright side, this sadness-as-a-way-of-life inspired generations of composers to turn political turmoil and social strife into richly layered music shot through with adrenaline and a surprising, resilient joy. Violin superstar Joshua … Read more