Jay Aubrey-Herzog

Lawrence Wright’s new book on Scientology is not the first expose of the church, though it is the first by a Pulitzer prizewinner. Such a pedigree was still not enough to ensure its publication in the United Kingdom, where the book faced challenges from the fiercely litigious church. The book reveals founder church founder L. […]

Michael Chabon’s new novel aims to be many things: A story of missing fathers and abandoned sons, a recollection of ’70s black pop culture, and the modern story of an indie record store fighting the corporate behemoth that would displace it. An ambitious mix of characters and themes, it would seem to be another example […]

Mark Dery goes where many fear to tread. He’s a member of that endangered species, the freelance intellectual, not hindered by careerist academic drudgery, stifling ideological lockstep or commercial pressure. He’s grown beyond his earlier books, which paid too much obeisance to the gods of postmodern cultural theory. Here he seems more truly himself, and […]

The seemingly disparate fragments of American culture described in this book of essays are held together by a unique voice, one that’s equally steeped in history and the vicissitudes of modern life. All the pieces bear a personal stamp, and some even constitute an autobiography of sorts. “Upon This Rock,” Sullivan’s first-person account of a […]

Zazen by Vanessa Veselka Set in an America on the precipice of collapse, this novel follows Della, a waitress who becomes increasingly obsessed with the bombs going off throughout the industrial northwestern city she lives in. On a whim she calls in a bomb threat, which sparks a fiery plot beyond her control. Della’s inner […]

“It’s a feel in the air. Sometimes with low budget films you get that feel, that carnival feel. It’s here. But I feel it more here than I ever have.” He meant it. His eyes sparkled, he smiled with real joy. from Hollywood by Charles Bukowski Though Roger Ebert gained fame as a movie reviewer […]

In the ’70s, Albert Brooks helped pioneer a deconstructive style of stand-up comedy that permeates the culture today. In his early short films on the first season of Saturday Night Live he played a version of himself as a pompous, self-involved narcissist, a persona that was a clear precursor to the kind of comedy of […]

It would be very easy to describe A Visit From The Goon Squad as merely a collection of interrelated short stories, but that would be wrong. It most definitely is a novel, if not a traditional one. Though several of the chapters were published as stand-alone short stories, they achieve a cumulative resonance when set […]

Over the last few years there’s been much hue and cry about the death, or at least the radical transformation, of the printed word. The insatiable digital maw has swallowed music and film, and books are next up on the plate, or so it seems. C. Max Magee, founder of The Millions, one of the […]

By his own admission, British writer Geoff Dyer is easily bored. As a result, he’s cast his net over a wide variety of subjects and genres, blurring the lines between fiction, personal essay and reporting. His book But Beautiful convincingly created fictionalized portraits of jazz legends and is one of the best books ever written […]

Of all the figures that emerged in the ’60s, cultural theorist Marshall McLuhan perhaps looms largest over the mediascape we experience today. His insights on the nature of media still resonate, but his actual writings are often misinterpreted, if they’re actually even still read at all. It’s perfectly fitting then that novelist Douglas Coupland takes […]