Reviews
May 21, 2013
At the Frontiers of the Unsayable: Bennett Sims’s A Questionable Shape 0
by Susan Hazen-Hammond
There may be readers who will — on discovering that A Questionable Shape combines a quest, a romance, humor, and an epidemic of zombies, with philosophy, footnotes, history, science, the arts, half of Daniel Webster, cascades of lyricism and truckloads of realism — refuse to so much as open the back cover. I wish they would rethink their decision.
May 16, 2013
The Museum of Unhappy Women: Z by Therese Anne Fowler 2
by Janet Potter
Paradoxically, this is the reason to write and read about Zelda, because she deserved a life much more interesting than the one that she got. Interesting to her, that is, a life she could have given her energy and talents to, not just a life made interesting by famous friends and European capitals.
May 16, 2013
Up Shit Creek, Sans Paddle: On David Waltner-Toews’s The Origin of Feces 0
by Michael Bourne
The Origins of Feces is a genial book, and often a kick to read, but I put it down thinking two things: 1. I will never look at shit the same way again; and 2. We are in deep shit.
May 14, 2013
War is Just Business: John le Carré’s A Delicate Truth 2
by Emily St. John Mandel
There are moments when the machinery of plot grinds a little too obviously, but Le Carré remains formidable. Here, as elsewhere in his body of work, Le Carré proves himself a master of character development.
May 14, 2013
An Education in Economics and Love: A. Igoni Barrett’s Love Is Power, Or Something Like That 0
by Hannah Gersen
Betrayals drive many of Barrett’s stories, but he takes pains to illuminate the love beneath them.
May 9, 2013
Sing It, Sister! On Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings 10
by Edan Lepucki
As I read its final lines, declarative and profound and true, I felt mournful. The book — this book! — was over. I closed the novel and wondered if I could write a book this big, this ballsy. I imagined Ms. Wolitzer behind an imposing mahogany desk, quill in hand. ”Why not?” she said to me, and smiled. Yes, why not?