Jay McInerney’s characters may live on exotic mixed drinks and fine wines, but they still suffer moral dilemmas and have consciences they cannot silence.
American fiction
Book Review: Towering Rage and Bottomless Mirth—Jonathan Franzen’s “Purity”
My biggest gripe is with a central tenet of Jonathan Franzen’s fiction: communication between generations is impossible.
Book Review: “Half an Inch of Water” — Nine Stories that Peer Memorably into Eternity
One of the hardest things to do as a writer of contemporary fiction is to create characters who are good.
Book Review: Marilynne Robinson’s “Lila” — A Vision of Life More Damned Than Redeemed
Lila is an ambitious book that is deeply flawed and not nearly in the same class as Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead.
Book Review: Donald Antrim’s “The Emerald Light in the Air” — Unabashedly Gorgeous
The Emerald Light in the Air is important reading for those interested in the state of the American short story, or of American fiction in general.