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LA Review of BooksThe Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit or Author: LA Review of Books
The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts. The Los Angeles Review of Books magazine was created in part as a response to the disappearance of the traditional newspaper book review supplement, and, with it, the art of lively, intelligent long-form writing on recent publications in every genre, ranging from fiction to politics. The Los Angeles Review of Books seeks to revive and reinvent the book review for the internet age, and remains committed to covering and representing todays diverse literary and cultural landscape. Language: en Genres: Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Richard Hell's "Godlike"
Friday, 13 February, 2026
Richard Hell joins Kate Wolf to speak about the reissue of his novel, "Godlike." Originally published in 2005, "Godlike" transposes the relationship of the 19th century poets Arthur Rimabaud and Paul Verlaine to 1970s New York. Told from the hospital room of poet Paul Vaughn, the story centers on his meeting of a wily and charismatic 16-year-old punk named R.T. Wode decades earlier. Their attraction is instant, and it becomes a kind obsession for Paul that is as clarifying and creatively fruitful as it is deluding. The novel is steeped in the poetry of the New York School and captures the scene around St. Mark's Church that Hell came to know when he was just a teenager himself. An anti-nostalgic remembrance, the book reflects on aging, death, belief, and the power of the word to transform the detritus of the everyday into something holy and lasting.
