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★★★☆☆ When Garth Risk Hallberg’s debut City on Fire was published in 2015, its hype preceded much discussion of its literary merit. At nearly 1,000 pages and earning Hallberg an unheard-of seven-figure book deal,...
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “Pretty took the will to be so and the money to do it and the time to see to it and the sleep to maintain it, and Ella didn’t...
★★★☆☆ Nicole Krauss has taken a bold, introspective leap forward with her new novel Forest Dark: this is a difficult, densely intellectual book about memory, history, and the contemporary Jewish experience mixed with a Franz...
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Channeling Thomas Pynchon at his most madcap and boasting an expert’s knowledge of literary theory, Laurent Binet’s The Seventh Function of Language is semiotics fanfiction. In 1980, when Roland...
★★★☆☆ An understatement: Jeffrey Eugenides is one of the good ones. It’s equally understated to say he doesn’t publish novels all that often. With three to his name, each are about a decade apart....
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Claire Messud’s The Burning Girl smolders with the nostalgia of a frayed preteen friendship bracelet: this transportive novel spans the formative summers of Julia and Cassie, two best friends...
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Uncomfortable pauses, dead jokes, and poor delivery are nothing compared to standup comic Dov Greenstein’s bouts of violent self-criticism. His audience shifts from perplexed to appalled as he slaps...
★★★★☆ Moving in together, buying a house together, becoming a family: there are certain situations in life’s relationships that can feel more like a trial. However well you may know or love a person,...
★☆☆☆☆ All The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler delivers on the promise of its clickbaity title with a variety of sexual musings and seduction artist field reports. Cole is a high school student who...
