Underrated Reads

Paris Noir: The Suburbs: Akashic Noir Series – Hervé Delouche (Editor)

Posted on March 5, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “Where was French romanticism? The opulence of the West? I found Paris—Pantin, really---very different from what I had imagined. I found Pantin ugly…”. An Albanian national flees his country in fear for his life and joins his cousin in this Paris suburb. In this story, “Patin, Really” by Timothée Demeillers, he…

Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, French Literature, Reviewers' Top Picks, Short stories, World Literature | Tagged French literature, immigration, noir, Paris | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited:My Monticello – Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Posted on February 28, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “My whole life, it seems, there’s been a revival of hatred and violence toward people who look like me. Waves of men have surged into our town from all over the state, the country.” This is Charlottesville, VA in the somewhat near future. After severe thunderstorms rip out the electrical…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged culture, family, gender, multiculture, race, race relations, racism, society | Comments Off

Last Words on Earth – Javier Serena, Translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore

Posted on February 23, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned "The paradox of letters made weapons, words made bayonets with which to pierce the page and exact revenge against my own destiny, which I had judged---until then---to be so harsh." Poet and writer Ricardo Funes didn’t find fame until he was dying. He was born in Peru but went into…

Posted in Latin American Literature, World Literature | Tagged Mexico City, negacionismo, Peru, poetry, Roberto Bolaño, Spain | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: Things I Have Withheld – Kei Miller

Posted on February 19, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “…the place where I have always felt most comfortably gay is in Jamaica. In Jamaica, I know the language and the mannerisms of queerness. In Jamaica, I know how to dance. In Jamaica, I do not have to constantly translate my sexuality into mannerisms and speech and dances that sometimes…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Caribbean literature, gender, LGBTQ | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited:The Man Who Lived Underground – Richard Wright, Afterward by Malcolm Wright

Posted on February 12, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “…even though his entire body was drenched in what seemed to him a cloud of hot vapor, even though his throat gagged at the reeking odors, he felt that he was safe for the first time in many long and weary hours…” Fred Daniels, a twenty-nine-year-old black man in an…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged ethics, police brutality, racism, Religion | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited: The Lost Treasures of R&B – Nelson George

Posted on February 8, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “They were both Golden Gloves boxers and had that good foot work. They both did splits. Weren't afraid to get on the floor. Not spinning like hip hoppers but they would get on their knees to sell a song...That man could get on his knees in his suit and bend backward like…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged corruption, crime fiction, Hip hop, poverty, rhythm and blues | Comments Off

An UnderratedRead Revisited – Gigolo: Inside the Secret World of the Super Rich- Ben Foster & Clifford Thurlow

Posted on January 22, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “…I had plenty of money but always needed more. I had thought of myself as a healer when I started work at the spa. I had turned into a total slut. I played every client until they let go of their inhibitions and submitted to their secret fantasies. Ladies who…

Posted in Revisited | Tagged Britain, class, massage, prostitution, rich & famous, society | Comments Off

Taking Down Backpage: Fighting the World’s Largest Sex Trafficker – Maggy Krell

Posted on January 13, 2022 by J D Jung

(Reviewed by JD Jung) “While a commercial sex transaction may seem consensual on the surface, the lopsided power dynamic, the history of trauma and abuse, and the lack of options often make the consent illusory. And sex without consent is rape. The exchange of money doesn’t change that." By 2012, human trafficking was the world’s…

Posted in Bios and Memoirs, Non-fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks, Social Justice | Tagged human trafficking, Non-fiction, rape, sex trafficking, Sexual abuse | Comments Off