EEG by Daša Drndić
★★★★☆ Daša Drndić’s final novel EEG is a hypnotic and challenging treatise about trauma and history and the importance of painful remembrance. Originally published in 2016 (two years before her death) and translated from...
Category: Book Reviews
Spring by Ali Smith
★★★★★ Ali Smith’s Spring is one of the great literary achievements of 2019: it is a novel of vitality in every sense of the word, as energetic and lively as it is timely and...
Is, Is Not by Tess Gallagher
★★★☆☆ Its title suggests the endless arguments of two children, that something “is!” or “is not!” While we are not encumbered by mere recitation of unresolvable argument in Tess Gallagher’s collection, the reader experiences...
Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
★★★★☆ Sea Witch by Sarah Henning is the story of how a young girl, desperate to protect those she loves and find a place in her society, becomes the villain in “The Little Mermaid”...
Diary of a Murderer by Young-Ha Kim
★★★★☆ As a reader, I’m calibrated by default toward artful, literary prose, but then a particularly talented writer with a spare style comes along and rocks my boat in the best possible way. Korean...
Now, Now, Louison by Jean Frémon
★★★★☆ Even at their most monumental, Louise Bourgeois’ spider sculptures somehow feel nimble. At their largest, they tower to heights of thirty feet, and, cast in bronze, must boast a remarkable weight. Yet somehow,...
The Gulf by Belle Boggs
★★★☆☆ Belle Boggs’ first novel The Gulf takes a few interesting toys out of the toy chest, lines them all up, then abruptly sweeps them into the trash. The novel succeeds when humorously skewering...
Henry, Himself by Stewart O’Nan
★★★★☆ Returning to the fictional Maxwell family of Pittsburg, Stewart O’Nan’s Henry, Himself provides the backstory for two of the author’s previous, highly appreciated novels. The first, Wish You Were Here (2002), introduced the...
Crown Jewel by Christopher Reich
★★☆☆☆ The publishing industry is replete with high-quality novels featuring James Bond-like characters set in exotic locales. Tough, smart men—and the occasional woman protagonist—run into danger and win the day utilizing their smarts and...
