Essay: The Gospel story and politics
Jesus and the people of Judea lived under the heel of the Roman army and of Tiberius, the emperor, which is a fancy name for dictator. The Zealots were the [...]
Book review: “The Tides of Time” by John Brunner
In its odd way, John Brunner’s 1984 novel The Tides of Time is an adventure story. It’s also a thriller and a mystery that propels the reader along in search [...]
Book review: “The Jefferson Bible: A Biography” by Peter Manseau
It takes some hubris to rewrite the Christian gospels, but maybe not that much. A lot of people have done it. The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John seem [...]
Book review: “The Streets of Europe: The Sights, Sounds and Smells That Shaped Its Great Cities” by Brian Ladd
I’m having a difficult time deciding what, dear reader, to tell you first. Let’s put it this way: The streets of Paris, London, Vienna and Berlin in the 1700s and [...]
Poem: “After”
After By Patrick T. Reardon . After clangor parade, after wailing trombones, teletype drums, clockwork drum majors and majorettes, after cymbal clamor of arena-full horde, pent-up for release, for rebound [...]
Essay: Citizen Jesus
Back in the ‘80s, during a holiday get-together, one of the family elders, who was known for sweeping declarations, made a sweeping declaration: “You can’t be a Republican,” she said, [...]
Book review: “A Death in the Family” by James Agee
It was nearly 40 years ago that I first read James Agee’s autobiographical novel A Death in the Family. Since then, I have experienced a similarly sudden violent death [...]
Book review: “Love” by Roddy Doyle
There’s much that’s audacious about Roddy Doyle’s new novel Love. There’s the title, first of all. It seems fitting for some sort of Romeo and Juliet story, with or without [...]
Book review: “Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language, New and Selected” by Haki R. Madhubuti
One of my favorite poems in Haki R. Madhubuti’s new, career-spanning collection Taught by Women: Poems as Resistance Language is “Big Momma,” originally published in 1970. Back a half century [...]
Join Pat Reardon and Julia Keller for a discussion of Pat’s new book on Chicago’s elevated Loop — Thursday, November 19
Publication of my new book The Loop: The “L” Tracks That Shaped and Saved Chicago is set for Thanksgiving Day. But you can get an early glimpse of what the [...]