Adam Sobsey

Presenting Rob's staff pick of 2025, @sobsey revisits the early-1980s Los Angeles indie-pop scene: lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-pa…

I reviewed the new Grant-Lee Phillips album ‘In the Hour of Dust’. Politics! Also, tenderness. Protest songs! Also, lullabies: popmatters.com/grant-lee-phil…

I talked with current #guggenheim fellow Nell Zink, and explored her latest novel ‘Sister Europe’, for @LAReviewofBooks: lareviewofbooks.org/article/connec…

Writing for @LAReviewofBooks is always a pleasure; doubly so writing for @LAReviewofBooks about one of my favorite living writers (and the opportunity to talk with her at length).

@USAmbRO Greetings Chargé d’affaires Michael L. Dickerson. I’m a US writer of 🇷🇴 descent. My new book ‘A Jewish Appendix’ is about my Romanian origins, the country’s rich & complex Jewish history, & combating antisemitism. May I send it to you? If so, let me know how.

TONIGHT! I'm reading from 'A Jewish Appendix' @FlyleafBooks in Chapel Hill. Joining me for post-reading Q&A and convo is Rabbi Hannah Bender of Judea Reform Congregation. Please come! flyleafbooks.com/event/sobsey-2…

New interview w/ me about 'A Jewish Appendix' by @yonatshimron. "Samuel to Saul: ‘And you shall turn into another man.' The act of writing is an act of not only invention but self-reinvention. Every work of writing recreates you in the act of doing it." religionnews.com/2025/04/11/ada…

‘A Jewish Appendix’ is launched! Here I am, yakking at the official launch reading and fête on Sunday. More events are upcoming, stay tuned! Meanwhile, you can buy the book here: bookshop.org/p/books/a-jewi…

I was interviewed & my memoir 'A Jewish Appendix' sensitively discussed by the wonderful @indyweek writer @LenaRoseGeller: indyweek.com/culture/in-poe… My book was published 4 days ago. Get a copy! spuytenduyvil.net/A-Jewish-Appen… #Memoir #JewishLit

I was lucky to receive such perceptive attention from a reader & writer so gifted.

Writers dream of such generous and sensitive treatment. Thank you @LenaRoseGeller & @indyweek. My book ‘A Jewish Appendix’ is out now: spuytenduyvil.net/A-Jewish-Appen…

It was a *major* delight to interview (my hero(ine)) Neko Case. We discussed, among other things, her new memoir, rage, forgiveness, Dexter Romweber & so much more. For the Missouri Review: missourireview.com/interview-with…

And, to complete the @LAReviewofBooks writers/Jews sequence, here is my essay about a non-Jewish writer so obsessed w/ Jews that things get, well, complicated. Me on W.G. Sebald: lareviewofbooks.org/article/w-g-se…

While we're at it, speaking of @LAReviewofBooks essays and Jews, here is me on James Salter, reviewing a vexing new-ish biography/study of Salter by one of his admirers -- or is that enviers? lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-stra…

Also, with Kieran Culkin winning yet another award for 'A Real Pain,' check out my @LAReviewofBooks essay on the movie & my own search for Jewish roots in Eastern Europe: lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-re…

With Rain Parade's 'Emergency 3rd Rail Power Trip,' one of the greatest psychedelic pop albums ever, recently reissued, I wrote about the Paisley Underground, LA's early-80s music scene that has been surprisingly durable. For @LAReviewofBooks: lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-pa…

"The Paisley Underground may have been populated by the children of punk, but they rebelled against the rebels who begat them." @sobsey revisits the early-1980s Los Angeles indie pop scene. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-pa…

"What began for me as nothing like a roots trip had now become one, intensely, painfully, as I visited place after place from which my roots had been ripped out." @sobsey reflects on "A Real Pain" and his own excavation of his Jewish roots. lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-re…

For @LAReviewofBooks, I wrote about the BAFTA-winning movie 'A Real Pain' & its resonances with my own search for Jewish roots & inheritance of epigenetic trauma: lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-re…

My memoir 'A Jewish Appendix' will be published in less than a month, and I'm already out there with it. Find out where here: sobsey.com/2025/02/17/a-j…