{"product_id":"book-reports-9781478000303","title":"Book Reports","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, Robert Christgau shows readers a different side to his esteemed career with reviews of books ranging from musical autobiographies, criticism, and histories to novels, literary memoirs, and cultural theory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] substantial collection of nearly 100 eclectic, thought-provoking, and idea-laden book reviews. . . . [Christgau's] range of topics is impressive, and his references are prolific. These sprightly, highly opinionated 'adventures of an autodidact' reveal Christgau to be a highly literate, astute, and discerning book critic.\" * Kirkus Reviews *\u003cbr\u003e\"Christgau mostly writes on books by or about notable musicians, though he hits other cultural touchstones too, such as George Orwell’s \u003ci\u003e1984\u003c\/i\u003e. It’s in these nonmusic pieces that Christgau is most successful, shifting focus from his encyclopedic music-industry knowledge to the nuances of language. His essay on books about the 2008 financial crisis is a highlight.\" * Publishers Weekly *\u003cbr\u003e\"There are few critics working today with the life-long commitment, focus, and curiosity of Robert Christgau. \u003ci\u003eBook Reports\u003c\/i\u003e doesn't scan the over half-century of the man's work, and that's what makes it all the more impressive. He's still searching, still pulling volumes from the shelves, looking at new or old ideas, cracking open the spines of preconceived notions all in the service of taking just one more look before walking away with the promise of yet another return.\" -- Christopher John Stephens * Popmatters *\u003cbr\u003e\"For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music.\" -- Melissa Engleman * Library Journal *\u003cbr\u003e\"One reads Christgau for Christgau as much as for the subject of his work.\" -- Jeff Tamarkin * Mojo *\u003cbr\u003e\"Though Christgau partisans have the most to gain from this collection, it’s also good for anyone looking for an accessible way into his extensive oeuvre.\" -- Chad Comello * Booklist *\u003cbr\u003e\"Christgau is . . . one of America’s sharper public intellectuals of the past half century, and certainly one of its most influential—not to mention one of the better stylists in that cohort. Fun is a big part of why.\" -- David Cantwell * The New Yorker *\u003cbr\u003e\"Though not everyone will agree with Christgau’s views (this reader certainly did not), all readers will likely appreciate his style and approach and the depth of his knowledge about a broad range of popular music. Those curious about popular music may find Christgau's style aggressive at times, but that is exactly the point; Christgau pushes the reader to think. Seasoned readers will discover that Christgau questions authors in a way that encourages one to evaluate a book at a deeper level. In short, this is a great read for fans, critics, and scholars alike.\" -- T. R. Harrison * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments  xiii\u003cbr\u003e Introduction  1\u003cbr\u003e I. Collectibles\u003cbr\u003e The Informer: John Leonard's \u003ci\u003eWhen the Kissing Had to Stop\u003c\/i\u003e  11\u003cbr\u003e Advertisements for Everybody Else: Jonathan Lethem's \u003ci\u003eThe Ecstasy of Influence\u003c\/i\u003e  14\u003cbr\u003e Democratic Vistas: Dave Hickey's \u003ci\u003eAir Guitar\u003c\/i\u003e  17\u003cbr\u003e II. From Blackface Minstrelsy to Track-and-Hook\u003cbr\u003e In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter  23\u003cbr\u003e The Old Ethiopians at Home: Ken Emerson's \u003ci\u003eDoo-Dah!\u003c\/i\u003e  40\u003cbr\u003e Before the Blues: David Wondrich's \u003ci\u003eStomp and Swerve\u003c\/i\u003e  43\u003cbr\u003e Rhythms of the Universe: Ned Sublette's \u003ci\u003eCuba and Its Music\u003c\/i\u003e  46\u003cbr\u003e Black Melting Pot: David B. Coplan's \u003ci\u003eIn Township Tonight!\u003c\/i\u003e  49\u003cbr\u003e Bwana-Acolyte in the Favor Bank: Banning Eyre's \u003ci\u003eIn Griot Time\u003c\/i\u003e  56\u003cbr\u003e In the Crucible of the Party: Charles and Angelilki Keil's \u003ci\u003eBright Balkan Morning\u003c\/i\u003e  59\u003cbr\u003e Defining the Folk: Benjamin Filene's \u003ci\u003eRomancing the Folk\u003c\/i\u003e  64\u003cbr\u003e Folking Around: David Hajdu's \u003ci\u003ePositively 4th Street\u003c\/i\u003e  67\u003cbr\u003e Punk Lives: Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's \u003ci\u003ePlease Kill Me\u003c\/i\u003e  70\u003cbr\u003e Biography of a Corporation: Nelson George's \u003ci\u003eWhere Did Our Love Go?\u003c\/i\u003e  72\u003cbr\u003e Hip-Hop Faces the World: Steven Hager's \u003ci\u003eHip Hop\u003c\/i\u003e; David Toop's \u003ci\u003eThe Rap Attack\u003c\/i\u003e; and Nelson George, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski's \u003ci\u003eFresh\u003c\/i\u003e  75\u003cbr\u003e Making Out Like Gangsters: Preston Lauterbach's \u003ci\u003eThe Chitlin' Circuit\u003c\/i\u003e, Dan Charnas's \u003ci\u003eThe Big Payback\u003c\/i\u003e, Ice-T's \u003ci\u003eIce\u003c\/i\u003e, and Tommy James's \u003ci\u003eMe, the Mob, and Music\u003c\/i\u003e  80\u003cbr\u003e Money Isn't Everything: Fred Goodman's \u003ci\u003eThe Mansion on the Hill\u003c\/i\u003e  86\u003cbr\u003e Mapping the Earworm's Genome: John Seabrook's \u003ci\u003eThe Song Machine\u003c\/i\u003e  89\u003cbr\u003e III. Critical Practice\u003cbr\u003e Beyond the Symphonic Quest: Susan McClary's \u003ci\u003eFeminine Endings\u003c\/i\u003e  97\u003cbr\u003e All the Tune Family: Peter van der Merwe's \u003ci\u003eOrigins of the Popular Style\u003c\/i\u003e  100\u003cbr\u003e Bel Cantos: Henry Pleasant's \u003ci\u003eThe Great American Popular Singers\u003c\/i\u003e  102\u003cbr\u003e The Country and the City: Charlie Gillett's \u003ci\u003eThe Sound of the City\u003c\/i\u003e  109\u003cbr\u003e Reflections of an Aging Rock Critic: Jon Landau's \u003ci\u003eIt's Too Late to Stop Now\u003c\/i\u003e  115\u003cbr\u003e Pioneer Days: Kevin Avery's \u003ci\u003eEverything Is an Afterthought\u003c\/i\u003e and Nona Willis Aronowitz's (ed.) \u003ci\u003eOut of the Vinyl Deeps\u003c\/i\u003e  117\u003cbr\u003e Impolite Discourse: Jim Derogatis's \u003ci\u003eLet It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs\u003c\/i\u003e, Richard Meltzer's \u003ci\u003eA Whore Jus Like the Rest\u003c\/i\u003e, and Nick Tosches's \u003ci\u003eThe Nick Torches Reader\u003c\/i\u003e  123\u003cbr\u003e Journalism and\/or Criticism and\/or Musicology and\/or Sociology (and\/or Writing): Simon Firth  129\u003cbr\u003e Serious Music: Robert Walser's \u003ci\u003eRunning With the Devil\u003c\/i\u003e  137\u003cbr\u003e Fifteen Minutes of . . . : William York's Who's Who in Rock Music  139\u003cbr\u003e The Fanzine Worldview, Alphabetized: Ira A. Robbins's (ed.) \u003ci\u003eTrouser Press Guide to New Wave Records\u003c\/i\u003e  140\u003cbr\u003e Awesome: Simon Reynolds's \u003ci\u003eBlissed Out\u003c\/i\u003e  143\u003cbr\u003e Ingenuousness Lost: James Miller's \u003ci\u003eFlowers in the Dustbin\u003c\/i\u003e  147\u003cbr\u003e Rock Criticism Lives: Jessica Hopper's \u003ci\u003eThe Fist Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic\u003c\/i\u003e  151\u003cbr\u003e Emo Meets Trayvon Martin: Hanif Abdurraquib's \u003ci\u003eThey Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us\u003c\/i\u003e  156\u003cbr\u003e IV. Lives in Music Inside and Out\u003cbr\u003e Great Book of Fire: Nick Tosches's \u003ci\u003eHellfire\u003c\/i\u003e and Robert Palmer's \u003ci\u003eJerry Lee Lewis Rocks!\u003c\/i\u003e  163\u003cbr\u003e That Bad Man, Tough Old Huddie Ledbetter: Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell's \u003ci\u003eThe Life and Legend of Leadbelly\u003c\/i\u003e  169\u003cbr\u003e The Impenetrable Heroism of Sam Cooke: Peter Guralnick's \u003ci\u003eDream Boogie\u003c\/i\u003e  171\u003cbr\u003e Bobby and Dave: Bob Dylan's \u003ci\u003eChronicles: Volume One\u003c\/i\u003e and Dave Van Ronk's \u003ci\u003eThe Mayor of MacDougal Street\u003c\/i\u003e  178\u003cbr\u003e Tell All: Ed Sanders's \u003ci\u003eFug You\u003c\/i\u003e and Samuel R. Delany's \u003ci\u003eThe Motion of Light in Water\u003c\/i\u003e  180\u003cbr\u003e King of the Thrillseekers: Richard Hell's \u003ci\u003eI Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp\u003c\/i\u003e  185\u003cbr\u003e Lives Saved, Lives Lost: Carrie Brownstein's \u003ci\u003eHunger Makes Me a Modern Girl\u003c\/i\u003e and Patti Smith's \u003ci\u003eM Train\u003c\/i\u003e  189\u003cbr\u003e The Cynic and the Bloke: Rod Stewart's \u003ci\u003eRod: The Autobiography\u003c\/i\u003e and Donald Fagen's \u003ci\u003eEminent Hipsters\u003c\/i\u003e  194\u003cbr\u003e His Own Shaman: RJ Smith's \u003ci\u003eThe One\u003c\/i\u003e  199\u003cbr\u003e Spotlight on the Queen: David Ritz's \u003ci\u003eRespect\u003c\/i\u003e  201\u003cbr\u003e The Realist Thing You've Ever Seen: Bruce Springsteen's \u003ci\u003eBorn to Run\u003c\/i\u003e  205\u003cbr\u003e V. Fictions\u003cbr\u003e Writing for the People: George Orwell's \u003ci\u003e1984\u003c\/i\u003e  213\u003cbr\u003e A Classic Illustrated: R. Crumb's \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Genesis\u003c\/i\u003e  217\u003cbr\u003e The Hippie Grows Older: Richard Brautigan's \u003ci\u003eSombrero Fallout\u003c\/i\u003e  222\u003cbr\u003e Comic Gurdjieffianism You Can Masturbate To: Marco Vassis' \u003ci\u003eMind Blower\u003c\/i\u003e  224\u003cbr\u003e Porn Yesterday: Walter Kendrick's \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Museum\u003c\/i\u003e  225\u003cbr\u003e What Pretentious White Men Are Good For: Robert Coover's \u003ci\u003eGerald's Party\u003c\/i\u003e  230\u003cbr\u003e Impoverished How, Exactly? Roddy Doyle's \u003ci\u003eThe Woman Who Walked into Doors\u003c\/i\u003e  236\u003cbr\u003e Sustainable Romance: Norman Rush's \u003ci\u003eMortals\u003c\/i\u003e  237\u003cbr\u003e Derrnig-Do Scrapping By: Michael Chabon's \u003ci\u003eTelegraph Avenue\u003c\/i\u003e  240\u003cbr\u003e Futures by the Dozen: Bruce Sterling's \u003ci\u003eHoly Fire\u003c\/i\u003e  245\u003cbr\u003e YA Poet of the Massa Woods: Sandra Newman's \u003ci\u003eThe Country of Ice Cream Star\u003c\/i\u003e  248\u003cbr\u003e A Darker Shade of Noir: The Indefatigable Walter Mosley  252\u003cbr\u003e VI. Bohemia Meets Hegemony\u003cbr\u003e Épatant le Bourgeoisie: Jerrold Seigel's \u003ci\u003eBohemian Paris\u003c\/i\u003e and T. J. Clark's \u003ci\u003eThe Painting of Modern Life\u003c\/i\u003e  263\u003cbr\u003e The Village People: Christine Stansell's \u003ci\u003eAmerican Moderns\u003c\/i\u003e  278\u003cbr\u003e A Slender Hope for Salvation: Charles Reich's \u003ci\u003eThe Greening of America\u003c\/i\u003e  280\u003cbr\u003e The Lumpenhippie Guru: Ed Sanders's \u003ci\u003eThe Family\u003c\/i\u003e  285\u003cbr\u003e Strait Are the Gates: Morris Dickstein's \u003ci\u003eGates of Eden\u003c\/i\u003e  289\u003cbr\u003e The Little Counterculture That Could: Carol Brightman's \u003ci\u003eSweet Chaos\u003c\/i\u003e  293\u003cbr\u003e The Pop-Boho Connection, Narrativized: Bernard F. Gendron's Between \u003ci\u003eMontmarte and the Mudd Club\u003c\/i\u003e  297\u003cbr\u003e Cursed and Sainted Seekers of the Sexual Century: John Heidenry's \u003ci\u003eWhat Wild Ecstasy\u003c\/i\u003e  301\u003cbr\u003e Bohemias Lost and Found: Ross Wetzsteon's \u003ci\u003eRepublic of Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e, Richard Kostelanetz's \u003ci\u003eSoHo\u003c\/i\u003e, and Richard Lloyd's \u003ci\u003eNeo-Bohemia\u003c\/i\u003e  304\u003cbr\u003e Autobiography of a Pain in the Neck: Meredith Maran's \u003ci\u003eWhat It's Like to Live Now\u003c\/i\u003e  309\u003cbr\u003e VII. Culture Meets Capital\u003cbr\u003e Twentieth Century Limited: Marshall Berman's \u003ci\u003eAll That Is Solid Melts into Air\u003c\/i\u003e  315\u003cbr\u003e Dialectical Cricket: C. L. R. James's \u003ci\u003eBeyond a Boundary\u003c\/i\u003e  320\u003cbr\u003e Radical Pluralist: Andrew Ross's \u003ci\u003eNo Respect\u003c\/i\u003e  323\u003cbr\u003e Inside the Prosex Wars: Nadine Strossen's \u003ci\u003eDefending Pornography\u003c\/i\u003e, Joanna Frueh's \u003ci\u003eEroctic Faculties\u003c\/i\u003e, and Lara Kipnis's \u003ci\u003eBound and Gagged\u003c\/i\u003e  327\u003cbr\u003e Growing Up Kept Down: William Finnegan's \u003ci\u003eCold New World\u003c\/i\u003e  331\u003cbr\u003e Jesus Plus the Capitalist Order: Jeff Sharlet's \u003ci\u003eThe Family\u003c\/i\u003e  334\u003cbr\u003e Dark Night of the Quants: Ten Books About the Financial Crisis  338\u003cbr\u003e They Bet Your Life: Four Books About Hedge Funds  345\u003cbr\u003e Living in a Material World: Raymond Williams's Long Revolution  350\u003cbr\u003e With a God on His Side: Terry Eagleton's \u003ci\u003eCulture and the Death of God\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCulture\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMaterialism\u003c\/i\u003e  369\u003cbr\u003e My Friend Marshall: Marshall Berman's \u003ci\u003eModernism in the Streets\u003c\/i\u003e  374\u003cbr\u003e Index  381\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408967704919,"sku":"9781478000303","price":27.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781478000303.jpg?v=1730504899","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/book-reports-9781478000303","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}