An eclectic round-up of the favorite books of the year from our critics.
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Book Review: A Brilliant “Homeland Elegies” — Indispensable Witness
What Ayad Akhtar reveals, with stunning detail and a passion and an urgency rarely seen in American fiction, is that his is a story marked by a loneliness similar to that found in Melville, Dreiser, and T.S. Eliot, among others, and that puts him squarely in their company.
Literary Appreciation: D. H. Lawrence’s “Women in Love” at 100
I hope this centennial will inspire readers to immerse themselves in this enormously important, rich, and vibrant work.
Book Review: A.B. Yehoshua’s “The Tunnel” — A Serious Romp about an Aging Brain
Exuberant is the right word for A.B. Yehoshua’s new novel, not only because of the story’s pile up of characters and events, but also for its prose.
Book Review: “Invisible Years” — A Book for the Ages
Invisible Years is — simultaneously — an indispensable source and a distinguished work of art.
Book Review: “Immigrant Architect — Rafael Guastavino and the American Dream,” a Splendid Book about Design for all Ages
A book to cheer you in these challenging times, providing destinations to explore when this pandemic is over, and a story to inspire the more inventive young among us.
Book Review: Art Critic Peter Schjeldahl — Connecting Readers to the World in a New Way
Good essays about art help us learn to see. Wonderful essays about the artists in our lives — which means all the artists through history, because, as Peter Schjeldahl so eloquently puts it, “all art is contemporary” —- help us learn how to live.
Book Review: “The Planter of Modern Life” — A Biography of an Agricultural Visionary
Here is a splendid biography from which you will learn things you never suspected, a book that will renew your faith in passion and what Louis Bromfield called those peculiarly American traits: integrity and idealism.
Book Review: “Franci’s War” — A Very Relevant Holocaust Memoir
Here we have the story of a young Czech woman who could not only take a piece of fabric and shape it into a gorgeous dress, but could also take her experiences during WWII and shape them into a compelling memoir.
Book Review: “Tightrope” — A Wake-up Call for America
What makes this book so necessary is that these are writers willing to state realities that members of both parties prefer to keep under the rug.