California Literary Review

Articles written for the California Literary Review:

• In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran – by Christopher de Bellaigue
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in History, Iran, Non-Fiction Reviews
  

  Americans would be well advised to learn about Iran’s culture and tragic recent history before our nations resort to a regional war. If you read one book about Iran to fill in your lack of knowledge, make sure it is this one.

• Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means – by William T. Vollmann
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in History, Non-Fiction Reviews
  

  With the exceptions of several of his earlier works, every time I take on a book by William T. Vollmann the same thought always wanders through my head about 100 to 150 pages into the narrative, “Why in the hell am I reading this.

• Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster by T.J. English
  Posted on 24 Apr 2007 in Biography, History, Non-Fiction Reviews, True Crime
  

  The genius of the Irish who emigrated to the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries was to fuse both political clout and criminal enterprise into vast, urban political machines that helped uplift the Irish and create a place for them at the table of American bounty.

• Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America
  Posted on 22 Apr 2007 in Biography, Business, History, Non-Fiction Reviews
  

  Since our society began its retreat into Social Darwinism tricked out in the guise of laissez-faire economics, those of us who enjoy our economic history red in tooth and claw have the guilty pleasure of reading about business scandals.

• The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness – by Jack El-Hai
  Posted on 22 Apr 2007 in Biography, Medicine, Non-Fiction Reviews, Science
  

  Walter Jackson Freeman was a man gifted with energy, optimism and an ice pick.

• The Italian Secretary: A Further Adventure Of Sherlock Holmes by Caleb Carr
  Posted on 22 Apr 2007 in Fiction Reviews, Mystery
  

  Those writers whom the gods would destroy, they first tempt into trying to imitate another writer who has influenced them.

• Battle for Europe: How the Duke of Marlborough Masterminded the Defeat of France at Blenheim by Charles Spencer
  Posted on 10 Apr 2007 in Great Britain, History, Military, Non-Fiction Reviews
  

  Even the greatest deeds of brave men can be forgotten in the mists of time – even when those deeds have a direct impact on how our world is organized today.

• Alibi by Joseph Kanon
  Posted on 10 Apr 2007 in Fiction Reviews, Mystery, Thrillers
  

  Joseph Kanon’s summer potboiler is a weak whodunnit set in the seedy splendor of post-war Venice.