So much of what this novel has to say feels bracing and necessary. This is where a good part of America lives—dangling over a chasm.
novel
Book Review: “An Unnecessary Woman” — A Memorable Story of Redemption
When the septuagenarian protagonist of this novel finally gets out of her claustrophobic apartment, everything changes.
Book Review: “The Devil I Know” — A Brilliant Satire of Ireland’s Boom and Bust
Claire Kilroy’s dark and fantastical comedy “The Devil I Know” nails the greed and rampaging ambition of the corrupt avatars of “the new Ireland” — developers, bankers, and government pooh-bahs.
Fuse Book Review: Richard Powers’s Urgent “Orfeo” — Can Art Save Us?
As with any Richard Powers novel, when you finish “Orfeo” you will have no doubt you are alive, awake, and likely ready to start over at page one.
Book Review: “Next Big Thing” — The Music Scene and Rock Clubs of 1980s Boston, Revived
In “Next Big Thing,” Terry Kitchen’s prose brings 1980s Boston, its music scene, and its rock clubs—from the long gone Rathskeller to the still standing Paradise—to life.
Book Review: “In the Land of the Living” — A Coming-of-Age Yarn Mixed With Grief
Austin Ratner’s follow up to “The Jump Artist” is an an exuberant, terrific novel — for its weaknesses, as well as its strengths.
Book Review: “The Wanting” — Ambitious and Audacious Fiction about the Middle East
There are so many characters to root for in “The Wanting” that you tend to read with your head swimming, and with an increasing sense of urgency as the senseless is revealed to have a logic of its own.
Book Review: “The Last Nude” — An Engaging Historical Fiction About Seductive Surfaces
Even though she covers herself with demurely crossed arms, her gaze could burn holes through fabric. If it looks like the artist had a predilection for strong, bosomy girls, well, there’s a reason for that.
Book Review: Niccolò Ammaniti’s “Me and You” — a lightly charming, digestible morsel
Italian writer Niccolò Ammaniti usually writes with an unadorned style about moral predicaments of the young in small-town Italy. “Me and You,” a slender effort in all respects, covers this ground as well, with the difference that fourteen-year-old protagonist Lorenzo Cumi is from an affluent Roman family.
Movie Review: A Gorgeous but Air-Headed “Jane Eyre”
It may be beautifully photographed, but this attempt to capture Charlotte Bronte’s literary classic on screen doesn’t bring anything new to the table, aside from playing up the hooking up in the manor. Jane Eyre should be more than a simple country romance.
