Caring For Mom, Dreaming Of 'Elsewhere'
Something must have been in the tap water in Gloversville, N.Y., during the 1950s when Richard Russo was growing up there — something, that is, besides the formaldehyde, chlorine, lime, lead, sulfuric...
View ArticleIan McEwan's 'Sweet Tooth' Leaves A Sour Taste
Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth is that oddest of literary achievements: an ingenious novel that I compulsively read, intellectually admired and increasingly hated. By the time I got to McEwan's last sneer of...
View ArticleHungry Hearts And Family Matters In 'Middlesteins'
At first glance, a novel in which the main character eats herself to death may not seem like the most felicitous pick for Thanksgiving week; but The Middlesteins turns out to be a tough but affecting...
View ArticleAt Home With Dickens And Lousia May Alcott
Famous writers and their families: that's the subject of two recent biographical studies that read like novels — one a Gothic nightmare; the other, a romance.Great Expectations is the tongue-in-cheek...
View Article10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012
2012 has been a very jittery year — what with the presidential election, extreme weather events and the looming "fiscal cliff." In response to these tense times, some readers seek out escape; others...
View Article'A Grain Of Truth' About Memory And Modern Poland
My mother is Polish, which meant that during the holidays when I was a kid, we broke out the polka records and kielbasa for special occasion meals from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Certainly,...
View ArticleGeorge Saunders Lives Up To The Hype
I was baffled by the cover of The New York Times Magazine two Sundays ago. You may remember that the headline of the cover story was: "George Saunders Has Written The Best Book You'll Read This Year."...
View ArticleHow A 'Madwoman' Upended A Literary Boys Club
This week, the National Book Critics Circle announced that two feminist literary scholars, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, would be the recipients of its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award.The front cover...
View ArticleJane Austen's 'Pride And Prejudice' At 200
My favorite item from the growing mountain of Pride and Prejudice bicentennial trivia comes courtesy of an article in something called Regency World Magazine, which is going gaga over the anniversary....
View ArticleA Soured Student-Teacher Friendship Threatens 'Everything'
Over the past week or so, I've mentioned James Lasdun's new book, Give Me Everything You Have to a bunch of colleagues; they've all heard about it already and they're all dying to read it. What Amy...
View ArticleKaren Russell's 'Vampires' Deserve The Raves
I don't have a good track record when it comes to raving about Karen Russell. Last year, along with my two fellow judges, I nominated Russell's novel, Swamplandia!, as well as two other finalists, for...
View ArticleDorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' Inspires The Story Of 'Mary Coin'
I shied away from Marisa Silver's new novel because of its book jacket: a reproduction of Dorothea Lange's iconic Depression-era photograph called "Migrant Mother." You know it: the woman's strong face...
View ArticleA Fiendish Fly Recalls Kafka In 'Jacob's Folly'
Man awakens to find out he has turned into an insect. And the Double Jeopardy question is, "What is Kafka's The Metamorphosis?" Well, what other response could there possibly be? Kafka all but cornered...
View Article'Lean In': Not Much Of A Manifesto, But Still A Win For Women
Sheryl Sandberg tells an anecdote in her new book, Lean In, about sitting down with her boss, Mark Zuckerberg, for her first performance review as chief operating officer at Facebook.
View ArticleThe Apathy In 'A Thousand Pardons' Is Hard To Forgive
Jonathan Dee likes to write about rich, good-looking people falling apart — and who among the 99 percent of us can't enjoy that plot? In The Privileges, the dad of the family was a Wall Street trader,...
View Article'Burgess Boys' Family Saga Explores The Authenticity Of Imperfection
In 1846, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a famous essay called "The Philosophy of Composition," in which he sounds like an interior decorator. I say that because in the essay, Poe insists that all good writing...
View ArticleBeauty Marks: Patricia Volk's Lessons In Womanhood
I've loved Patricia Volk's writing ever since I read her evocative 2002 memoir, Stuffed, which told the story of her grandfather — who introduced pastrami to America — as well as the rest of her...
View Article'Equilaterial': Martians, Oil And A Hole In The Desert
Equilateral is a weird little novel, but any reader familiar with Ken Kalfus expects his writing to go off-road. Kalfus wrote one of the best and certainly the least sentimental novels about New York...
View ArticleGodwin's 'Flora': A Tale Of Remorse That Creeps Under Your Skin
Gail Godwin says one of the inspirations for her new novel, called Flora, is Henry James' ghost story The Turn of the Screw. Both stories take place in isolated old houses, and both revolve around...
View ArticleComing To 'Americanah': Two Tales Of Immigrant Experience
First things first: Can we talk about hair? Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a big knockout of a novel about immigration, American dreams, the power of first love, and the shifting...
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