History Professor Kate Brown will soon publish a new book at the end of May on her experiences traveling and conducting research in the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation, the basement of a hotel in Seattle, Ukraine, Russia, and Illinois. The book, titled Dispatches from Dystopia (University of Chicago Press) examines the histories of places that have been silenced, contaminated, or broken and the lives of people who remain in those places.
The work recently received a positive review from Inside Higher Ed columnist Scott McLemee. “So for the first several pages of Dispatches From Dystopia I braced myself, only to find that Brown is the rare case of someone who can incorporate a number of registers of narrative and reflection within the same piece of writing, shifting among them with grace and quiet confidence. Her essays might be called position papers: topographical surveys of historical sites, with the mapmaker’s own itinerary sketched in,” he wrote.
“Brown’s first-person reflections are embedded in narratives and place descriptions that are more intricate and varied than a reviewer can even begin to suggest, and certain issues and motifs link the essays in ways that would probably reward a second reading. Each piece, like the volume as a whole, is an example of nonfiction that uses the first person, rather than just indulges it,” McLemee added.
The review contains several excerpts from the book. To read the full article, click here. For more information about the book, due out May 30, click here.
Updated 6/11:
Brown’s book was also reviewed by the Los Angeles Review of Books on May 31st. To read the complete article, click here.
