AltWeeklies Wire
'Massacred For Gold' Rises Above the Usual History Book Formulanew
R. Gregory Nokes' investigation of the 1887 mass murder of more than 30 Chinese gold miners is a chronicle within a chronicle, explaining not only how and why the murders occurred but how the author had to sift through scant and often contradictory evidence to make sense of a crime.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
10-14-2009 |
Nonfiction
Paul Auster Builds an Elaborate Fantasy to Reflect on Real-life Lossnew
The first sentence of Brooklyn novelist Auster's new book reads like Proust channeled through Kafka: "I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle with another bout of insomnia, another white night in the American wilderness."
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
09-17-2008 |
Fiction
Tags: Man in the Dark, Paul Auster
A Thin New Book Builds a Thin, Old Case Against the Chemical Industrynew
Nena Baker, a former investigative reporter for The Oregonian, has written a slim volume about toxins in the environment that builds an even slimmer case against the chemical industry.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
09-03-2008 |
Nonfiction
Louise Erdrich Returns with a Crazy Quilt of a Novelnew
The Plague of Doves stitches together several of her recent short stories, most of them previously published in The New Yorker. The remarkable thing is how seamlessly the final product fits together.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
05-01-2008 |
Fiction
How a Bootlegger's Son Shaped the Westnew
One measure of success for a book like Philip L. Fradkin's Wallace Stegner and the American West is whether it inspires readers to take up books by the biographer's subject.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
03-12-2008 |
Nonfiction
Jim Wallis' 'Great Awakening' is a Snoozenew
A progressive evangelical's new book will put his fans to sleep.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
01-30-2008 |
Nonfiction
A Hefty Book Captures the Early 19th Centurynew
Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the portentous half-century before the Civil War, a time that seems at once alien to our modern sensibilities and yet strangely echoes our own technological, consumer-driven age.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
11-07-2007 |
Nonfiction
'Thirteen' Explores the Oldest Theme in Sci-finew
The creator of Takeshi Kovacs returns with something old, something noir.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
07-18-2007 |
Fiction
Needs Less Joyce and More Noirnew
A Booker Prize winner writes a smart, if predictable, crime novel.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
03-22-2007 |
Fiction
Tags: Benjamin Black, Christine Falls
Highly Readable Historynew
In the beginning, for America, was the Middle East.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
02-15-2007 |
Nonfiction
Anything But Smooth Sailingnew
Schama drowns the American Revolution.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
05-17-2006 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Rough Crossings, Simon Schama
Empirical Dreamsnew
American Theocracy and The Secret Way To War call out more examples of the Bush White House's perfidy.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
04-05-2006 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Nonfiction Reviews
Rarely Radiatingnew
Dean largely misses in her attempt at true radiance.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
03-22-2006 |
Fiction
