(New York Quarterly Books) Review by Linda Scheller Connie Post understands the price pain exacts on the body and psyche, and she writes about it exceptionally well. In Between Twilight,…
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And Finally: Matters of Life and Death by Henry Marsh
(St. Martin’s) Review by Walter Cummins The “finally” in Henry Marsh’s title refers to the clear signal that death awaits him. After seventy years of avoiding admission of that inevitability,…
Paul Newman and the Authorial Fallacy
Essay by Walter Cummins I’d always thought of Paul Newman as a pretty cool guy—handsome, talented as an actor, entrepreneurial supporter of the same causes I am, married to a…
Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us by Rachel Aviv
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Review by Walter Cummins Like Rachel Aviv, the people whose mental issues she explores in Strangers to Ourselves are driven to write, some with works that…
You’ll Like It Here by Ashton Politanoff
(Dalkey Archive) Review by George Yatchisin A fascinating smudging of the notions of the novel, Ashton Politanoff’s You’ll Like It Here alternates between being charming and creepy, nostalgic and prophetic,…
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
Review by Walter Cummins Rob Delaney doesn’t exploit the ironic connection of the title used for his four-season television series—Catastrophe—and this book about the sufferings and eventual death of his…
Ten Best Books of 2022
While those familiar with other Best of 2022 lists will recognize some of the titles below, we hope the California Review of Books’ Top 10 will also nudge the curious…
A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella
Review by Walter Cummins When I’m reviewing a book, I defer from reading other reviews until I’ve written my own to avoid influencing my reaction. But in the case of…
The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings, by Geoff Dyer
Review by George Yatchisin Some lines from Robert Christgau about Lloyd Cole have always stuck with me: “So what if he can’t stop talking about books and movies and gathers…
All Possible Histories, by Sonia Greenfield
Review by Catherine Abbey Hodges One morning when my daughter was twelve, I became aware of her studying me. After a few moments, she said, “I wonder what it’s like…