troy jollimore: criticism

 

 

Essays, Reviews, Interviews:

 

Review of Kazuo Ishiguro, Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall.

LA Times, September 20, 2009. READ

 

“On ‘The Solipsist.’”

Washington Post Online, August 2, 2009. READ

 

Review of Simon Keller, The Limits of Loyalty.

Philosophy in Review, June 2009.

 

Review of Robert Wright, The Evolution of God.

Truthdig.com, June 19, 2009 READ

 

Review of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith Will Change the World.

Truthdig.com, April 2, 2009. READ

 

Review of Steven Johnson, The Invention of Air.

San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, January 9, 2009. READ

 

“Witty Poetry Remembers the Dead—and Their Food.”

Review of Kevin Young, Dear Darkness. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, October 31, 2008. READ

 

Interview with Richard Dawkins.

The Believer, No. 56, September 2008. (See selection here.)

 

On Don DeLillo’s Libra.

Critical Mass: The National Book Critics Circle Blog. Posted July 8, 2008. READ

 

“Greer Returns with Story of a Marriage.

Review of Andrew Sean Greer, Story of a Marriage. San Francisco Chronicle Book  Review, May 18, 2008. READ

 

Review of Martin Amis, The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom.

Truthdig.com, April 24, 2008. READ

 

“Beach Reading: The Pleasures of Robert Hass’s Criticism.”

Poetry Foundation website, posted January 2008. READ

 

Ashbery’s Anthology ‘Notes from the Air’ Delivers, Despite Himself.’

Review of John Ashbery, Notes from the Air. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, December 2, 2007. READ

 

“Dark Matters.”

Essay. St. Louis Magazine, October 2007. READ

 

“My Mind’s Not Right.”

(On “Skunk Hour” by Robert Lowell.) Poetry Foundation website, posted August 2007. READ

 

“Are You There, God? Didn’t Think So.”

Review of Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, May 13, 2007. READ

 

“Hey Kids! Madison Avenue Wants You!”

Review of Benjamin Barber, Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, April 1, 2007. READ

 

“Poet’s Truths Evolve Through Collection of Works.”

Review of W. S. Di Piero, Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems.San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, March 4, 2007. READ

 

“Hubris of Empire”

Review of Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic.San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, February 11, 2007. READ

 

“Better Living Without God?”

Review of Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, and E.O. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, October 15, 2006.  READ

 

“Straight Dope on LSD Guru Timothy Leary.”

Review of Robert Greenfield, Timothy Leary: A Biography. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, July 9, 2006. READ

 

“Anatomy of a Meal.” 

Review of Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, April 9, 2006.  READ

 

“How ‘Go Ask Alice’ Became ‘Just Say No.” 

Review of Philip Jenkins, Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, March 12, 2006.  READ

 

“Desire for Religion Grows Out of Human Experience.” 

Review of Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, February 5, 2006. READ

 

“Contradictions Make the Philosopher.” 

Review of Leo Damrosch, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, November 13, 2005.  READ

 

“How to Mock Business Without Really Trying.”

Review of Corinne Maier, Bonjour Laziness. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, June 5, 2005.  READ

 

“Think You Know Kafka?  Think Again.” 

Review of Roberto Calasso, K. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, February 20, 2005. READ

 

“How Societies Commit Suicide.” 

Review of Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review,  January 9, 2005.  READ

 

“Thinking About the Mind.” 

Review of John Searle, Mind: A Brief Introduction. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, December 19, 2004.  READ

 

“The Ground From Which a Poem Forms.”

Review of Helen Vendler, Poets Thinking. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, October 10, 2004. READ

 

“Snyder Faces Loss Head-On.” 

Review of Gary Snyder, Danger on Peaks. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, September 5, 2004.  READ

 

“Poets’ New Ideas Seem Awfully Familiar.” 

Review of Jeff Clark, Music and Suicide, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Americus: Book I. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, May 30, 2004.  READ

 

“A Case for Inserting Morality Into the Law.” 

Review of Thane Rosenbaum, The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to do What’s Right. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, May 2, 2004. READ

 

“Circling Spiritual Issues.”

Review of Karen Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, March 14, 2004.   READ

 

Measuring Out the Days of Carl Jung, Bit by Bit.” 

Review of Dierdre Bair, Jung: A Biography. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, December 7, 2003.  READ

 

Review of E.L. Doctorow, Reporting the Universe. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review (Reviews in Brief), June 3, 2003.

 

“Belly, Lungs, Liver and All.” 

Review of The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, translated by Ciaran Carson. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, March 2, 2003.  READ

 

Review of Marcus Danesi, The Puzzle Instinct. San Francisco Chronicle Book Review (Reviews in Brief), December 15, 2002.

 

“The Shallow Behaviour of a Deep Thinker.” 

Review of Ray Monk, Bertrand Russell: The Ghost of Madness. National Post (Canada), March 2001.

 

“Freedom of Association.”      

Review of Paul Muldoon, To Ireland, I. Boston Book Review, September 2000.   READ

 

“Is This Art, or What?”  

Review of Arthur Danto, The Madonna of the Future: Essays in a Pluralistic Art World. Boston Book Review, July/August 2000. READ

 

"A History Free from Frameworks." 

Review of Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Cultural History. National Post (Canada), July 2000.

 

"Attack of the Woolly Metaphysics." 

Review of Jed Perl, Eyewitness: Reports from an Art World in Crisis. Boston Book Review, May 2000.

 

"The Truth About Truth."     

Review of Richard Rorty, Philosophy and Social Hope. Boston Book Review, April 2000.  READ

 

 "Songs of Ourselves."    

Review of Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz, ed., Americans’ Favorite Poems: The Favorite Poem Project Anthology. Boston Book Review, March 2000.  READ

 

"What Do You Do With A Monster?"

Review of Umberto Eco, Kant and the Platypus. Boston Book Review, December 1999.

 

"An Act of Folly." 

Review of Lives of the Poets by Michael Schmidt. Boston Book Review, November 1999.

 

"Shams and Delusions." 

Review of Wendy Kaminer, Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials. Boston Book Review, October 1999.

 

"The Real Bird." 

Review of Michael Longley, Selected Poems. Boston Book Review, September 1999.

 

“A Restoration Drama."

Review of C.K. Williams, Repair. Boston Book Review, June 1999. READ

 

 

 

Troy Jollimore

Department of Philosophy

California State University

Chico, CA 95929-0730

tjollimore [at] csuchico.edu