Nonfiction

General nonfiction reviews

Home
Reviews
Nonfiction

‘Opacity and the Closet: Queer Tactics in Foucault, Barthes, and Warhol’ By Nicholas De Villiers

Chase Dimock
NonfictionReviews
3 min read
“The Closet” is an increasingly ill-fitting metaphor for queer men and women who wish to explore their sexuality outside of the two opposite states of either being “out” and having to confess their personal life aloud or being “closeted” and thus presumed to be living in shame or self-denial. It is this binary of being in or out of the closet that Nicholas De Villiers deconstructs in Opacity and the Closet... Read More
Aretha Franklin

‘The Fan Who Knew Too Much: Aretha Franklin, the Rise of the Soap Opera, Children of the Gospel Church, and Other Meditations’ by Anthony Heilbut

Rashod D. Ollison
NonfictionReviews
3 min read
The lingo heard in gay circles today (“the children,” for instance, as code for not-so-covertly gay members of the church) derived decades ago from the gospel underground, where drug and sexual abuse, promiscuity, and perhaps mental illness were prevalent. Lots of backstabbing and cut-throat showmanship went down, too, and Heilbut tells it all. Read More

‘Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall’ by St. Sukie de la Croix

Rachel Wexelbaum
NonfictionReviews
4 min read
Based on 2010 Census numbers, Chicago has the third largest urban LGBT population in the United States. The land that we know today as Chicago has had an LGBT presence since the seventeenth century. In spite of that, no one has published a history of LGBT life in Chicago until today. Chicago gay press writer St. Sukie de la Croix wrote Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall (University of Wisconsin Press) to fill that empty space on the shelf. Read More

‘A Saving Remnant: The Radical Lives of Barbara Deming and David McReynolds’ by Martin Duberman

Theodore Kerr
NonfictionReviews
4 min read
A Saving Remnant: The Radical Lives of Barbara Deming and David McReynolds, the newest work from prolific author Martin Duberman, may read as an informative and dishy history; a You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again for the Left Forum set. For others, the book is a handsome lecture filled with insights into poignant moments and influential people... Read More