ROUND-UP November 29-December 12, 2017

Hello readers! This (two-week) stretch of writing was a little slow due to my vacation back home, but please enjoy a book review for PopMatters, a movie review for Jewish Currents (a new publication for me!), and an art review for Whitehot.

• "'The Last Mrs. Parrish' Nods to and Subverts the Classics with Aplomb." PopMatters, November 29, 2017.

"The Last Mrs. Parrish fits well within the mold of Gone Girl-esque thrillers: it has the requisite unsympathetic female protagonist, features endless double-crossing and conniving and plotting, and is threaded throughout with cutting commentary on the roles and expectations of marriage."

• "Inglorious Bubbe." Jewish Currents, December 6, 2017.

"The seeming incongruity of a stereotypically sweet, witty old Jewish lady advocating violent resistance against Nazism is rather the point of Avery’s Resisterrrz painting series, as well as of the recent half-hour Canadian documentary made about her work, Hinda and her Sisterrrz (directed by Michael Kissinger). As one interviewee remarks in the film, '[Avery’s work] makes resistance feel more natural […] instead of feeling so victimized by the Holocaust, she’s given us all an opportunity to think of us as something else.'"

• "In 'Lazarus Taxa,' Caitlin McCormack Crochets the Beautiful Macabre." Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, December 12, 2017.

"Consisting of delicately-wrought skulls, skeletons, and decaying remains interwoven together, all rendered in black or white thread thread, the immediate effect is downright disturbing as well as spellbinding—a sort of memento mori vibe permeates the light, airy gallery space. The majority of the works are arranged on opposite walls in tight-knit, heavily ornamental formations, with several standalone works on pedestals scattered throughout the room. The works on pedestals depict relatively larger skulls both distorted and simply human, but are, on the whole, far less effective thematically than the careful arrangements of the works on the walls. They're much more obvious in their intent, while the sheer decorative beauty of the twinned walls disguises a much more malevolent truth."