(Ballantine Books) Review by Brian Tanguay If you’re drawn to novels with a broad sweep of time and place, The Wind Knows My Name, the latest from Isabel Allende, deserves…
Category: Fiction
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Random House Review by David Starkey Curtis Sittenfeld’s new novel Romanic Comedy really is a romantic comedy, complete with lovers who initially seem mismatched, complications and hurdles, and an ending…
Fat Time and Other Stories by Jeffery Renard Allen
Graywolf Review by Walter Cummins The contents of most short story collections are united by similarities of voice, tone, and subject matter. Despite differences of characters, dramatic issues, and even…
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
Harper Review by Jinny Webber A manhunt across the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven in 1660 drives Robert Harris’ latest novel, Act of Oblivion. Two officers in Oliver…
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Farrar Straus and Giroux Review by Jinny Webber “There will be time, there will be time / to prepare to meet the faces that you meet,” but what a different…
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
Knopf Review by David Starkey Early in Lorrie Moore’s new novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, the protagonist, Finn, notes that while white schizophrenics are allowed…
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Morrow Review by Brian Tanguay I can’t remember reading a work of fiction where bits of prose took me out of the story as often as happened while reading Yellowface…
Blue Skies by T. C. Boyle
(Liveright) Review by David Starkey Even the grimmest climate change novels usually contain a glimmer of humor, and books like Lydia Millet’s The Children’s Bible contain passages that are downright…
The Guest Lecture by Martin Riker
Black Cat Review by Walter Cummins In its opening section Martin Riker’s The Guest Lecture appears to be a critical study in disguise, a consideration of John Maynard Keynes based…