Scribner Review by George Yatchisin If fathers and sons didn’t exist, novelists would have had to invent them. Alexander Sammartino, in his debut novel Last Acts, dishes up quite a…
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3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Despite the depiction of the many triumphs of three of the greatest jazz musicians—many might argue of musicians in any genre—3 Shades of Blue is…
The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir by Susan Lieu
Celadon Books Review by Brian Tanguay Several years after the fall of Saigon, Susan Lieu’s parents fled Vietnam to escape suffocating Communist rule. Leaving was an enormous risk filled with…
James by Percival Everett
Doubleday Review by David Starkey If you were going to choose an author to rewrite The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim/James, it would be…
The Freaks Came Out To Write : The Definitive History of The Village Voice, The Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano
Public Affairs Walter Cummins In my long-ago youth I was one of the thousands of young poseurs, the wannabes from the outlying regions like New Jersey, who descended on Greenwich…
Places We Swim California: A Guide to the Best Rivers, Lakes, Waterfalls, Beaches, Gorges, and Hot Springs by Caroline Clements and Dillon Seitchik-Reardon
Hardie Grant Review by Brian Tanguay California’s geographic diversity and beauty has long inspired seekers, dreamers, and people of capacious imagination. The state’s many natural wonders dwarf our human stature…
Two Perspectives on Thomas Mann and his Translator: Mrs. Lowe-Porter by Jo Salas and The Magician by Colm Tóbín
Jackleg | Scribner Essay by Jinny Webber Thomas Mann, Nobel Prize-winner for literature in 1929, is the magician of Colm Tóbín’s novel. In his review in this journal, David Starkey…
Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life by John Gray
Picador Review by Walter Cummins As I read John Gray’s Feline Philosophy, I couldn’t help thinking of the concluding lines of Archibald McLeish’s “Ars Poetica”—“A poem should not mean / But…
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Norton Review by Brian Tanguay Whether he’s working as a war photographer or fixer, betting his last chips at the blackjack table, or pursuing handsome young men, Maali Almeida can’t…