Random House Review by Walter Cummins Although Colum McCann doesn’t refer to the 1948-49 Shannon-Weaver theory of communication, my remembering it helped me understand his novel Twist, in which the…
Category: Fiction
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Simon & Schuster Review by Walter Cummins Valerie Gillis closes the message to her mother that begins the novel Heartwood with this crucial memory: “But for a while, in your…
The Problem You Have by Robert Garner McBrearty
University of New Mexico Press Review by Jack Smith Robert Garner McBrearty’s The Problem You Have is a stunning collection of literary realism, often edgy realism, sometimes bordering on farce,…
Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
Random House Review by Walter Cummins Variations of similar human tensions unite the twelve stories in this collection. In each, at least one character stands out as mastering one or…
The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
Random House Review by Walter Cummins This case is indeed strange as it is revealed by through the voices of the two people at the center of the complication—Dr. Henry…
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Transit Books Review by Gabriel Tanguay Ortega I don’t like the amount of time I spend on social media, though it does turn me on to books I might never…
Mendell Station: A Novel by J. B. Hwang
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay Among the many things I liked about Mendell Station by J.B. Hwang is its realistic portrayal of working-class life. Delivering mail is a working-class occupation;…
A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith
Bloomsbury Review by Brian Tanguay In A Case of Mice and Murder, Sally Smith introduces Sir Gabriel Ward KC, a King’s Counsel who lives and works in the Temple, fifteen…
Our Beautiful Boys by Sameer Pandya
Ballantine Review by George Yatchisin It’s no coincidence that the two main subjects of Sameer Pandya’s second novel Our Beautiful Boys are family and violence. Set in a vaguely Santa…
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Knopf Review by Walter Cummins Three of the four women who figure in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s Dream Count are attractive, affluent, successful Nigerians—the wealthy travel-writer and hopeful novelist, Chiamaka, her…