Just when it seemed his "Border Trilogy" had thundered out of control comes Cormac McCarthy with a novel that lassoes the first two neatly.

Paula Fox's "Desperate Characters," reissued after 28 years, hardly feels dated -- one definition of great literature.

The cobbled-together "Juneteenth" makes one wonder -- did Ralph Ellison ever intend to let the evangelical Reverend Hickman loose?

Geoff Dyer's "Paris Trance" follows Fitzgerald back to France -- with ecstasy in place of vin rouge. But here, the City of Light is dimmer.

In "Ecology of Fear," Mike Davis takes cruel pleasure in describing the disasters -- natural and man-made -- awaiting the Pompeii of the Pacific.

For a few hundred pages of his new novel, Bret Ellis makes art out of vacuous night crawlers and brand names. Then -- too bad -- he tries to make a point.

Ron Hansen is a very good writer, but did we really need someone to imagine the (predictably nauseating) sex life of the personification of evil?

In Michael Lewis's new book, a "Last Tycoon"-ish tale of brilliant excess, a Silicon Valley genius builds the tallest sailboat in the world.

Jay McInerney's "Model Behavior" is a retelling of a certain eighties novel about Manhattan high life -- but with book critics as villains. Mere coincidence?

In a world obsessed with self-help, personal growth, and happy endings, David Gates's stories are realistically, refreshingly bleak.