The occasion of a new TJ Klune novel is cause for celebration. His characters, who sometimes seem like members of the band of misfit toys (and I say that with great affection), are engaging, vital, funny, charming, and tragic. His plots are involving and propulsive. They’re meaningful. They say something, So when I received a copy of Klune’s new novel, We Burned So Bright, I couldn’t wait to dig right in. It’s about Don and […]
Infinite Jest turns 30 this month. One can’t help but think what David Foster Wallace would make of the world he left behind. The world, in fact, where few new readers could imagine tackling the behemoth novel of thoughts and ideas that Infinite Jest represents. With the anniversary in sight, over the last half year or so, critics and cultural commentators have been revisiting the book. And they’ve been doing it not just as a […]
Today I learned that counterculture novelist (though he would have cringed at the description) Tom Robbins has died. I learned it because a bunch of folks quoted an interview I did with him back in 2000. I returned to that piece today and read the interview. It was good. But it also missed some notes. He was brilliant, Robbins was. And it was difficult — then as now — to do him justice. So the […]
If there was ever a week where we had enough Kennedy, it was this one. With the son of a former presidential hopeful and the nephew of one of America’s best-loved presidents of all time making headlines for forging deals with political devils, it’s easy to say, “enough already” with the Kennedy’s. Yet, for all their faults, Michael J. Deeb and Robert Lockwood Mills can’t be called on the carpet for the timing of their […]
Do you think you know what makes a classic novel… er… classic? The Washington Post thinks maybe we should think again. WaPo recently asked readers of their Book Club newsletter “which classic books are overrated and which unsung novels should be considered top-tier, we didn’t predict the level of enthusiasm that would accompany the responses”. Among those that some readers thought should get the toss were iconic books like J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the […]
Opening statement: Presumed Innocent is a novel by Scott Turow, a blockbuster bestseller in the second half of 1987. It was about an attorney named Rusty Sabich who is accused of murdering his colleague, Carolyn Polhemus. Carolyn was also his lover, despite the fact that Rusty was married to Barbara and the father of their son. As the novel unfolds, battling lawyers and their motives are revealed, evidence is misplaced, colleagues betray one another, sex […]
The 2024 shortlist for the International Booker Prize was announced last week, introducing us to six books from around the globe that have been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The prize recognizes the vital work of translators with the £50,000 prize money divided equally: £25,000 (about $31,000 US) for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators). In addition, there is a prize of £5,000 […]
This week it all feels a little on the nose, but this is early days in J.M. Adams’ career as a novelist. The ground covered in Second Term will feel less jolting in due course. This is the good stuff, even though the timing might be either not terrific or too terrific, depending on your perspective. It is September 2012. Cora Walker, a DIA defense operative, discovers a terrorist plot in Benghazi and jumps into […]
North Bath, the fictional upstate New York setting of Richard Russo’s “Fool” trilogy, seems to be finally and firmly on the skids in the brand-new novel Somebody’s Fool (Knopf). The town is slated for annexation by a wealthier, more liberal neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Even the local police station is being shuttered, its longtime chief, Douglas Raymer, surplussed to make room for his Black ex-employee and sometime-girlfriend, Charice Bond, at the helm of the Schuyler PD. […]
There is so much to love about The Ferryman that I hardly know where to begin. Justin Cronin’s first novel since his amazing Passage trilogy is filled with unforgettable characters, twists galore, and plenty of gravitas and pathos to get your heart racing…and breaking. I’m hesitant to say too much because there are so many ideas in this book, and so many things to spoil. What I can say is that Cronin goes out of […]
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