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

"Ahab's Wife," the latest in the emerging genre of footnote fiction, doesn't add much to Melville's masterpiece. On its own terms, though, it's surprisingly successful.

In Richard Powers's "Gain," capitalism itself is the main character, and selling soap has never been so interesting.

In "Night Train," Martin Amis wanders into a dark alley: His novel about hard-bitten American detectives is a stiff.

In "Bech at Bay," John Updike takes aim at German tourists and literary-world pomposity, among other targets. He's a good shot -- but they're still fish in a barrel.

Dorothy had ruby slippers; Monica had presidential knee pads. Dorothy had the wicked witch; Monica had Linda Tripp. Guess who the wizard is.

Is the S.A.T., instituted to create a fairer society, having the opposite effect? That's Nicholas Lemann's conclusion in his excellent new book.

The products have forsaken the consumers in Douglas Coupland's oddly old-school dispatch from the McAbyss.

An anthology spanning 50 years of Gore Vidal's smart, gossipy, opinionated prose reveals this acerbic writer -- whatever literary form he chooses -- as a people person.

The Polish heroine of Susan Sontag's compelling new novel dreams of losing her European identity. But rebirth isn't as easy as crossing the ocean.