Jonathan Ames hopes to parlay his quirky downtown charisma into cold, hard cash. But can a mid-list mensch make the cultural leap?

"East of the Mountains," David Guterson's follow-up to "Snow Falling on Cedars," is polished, heartwarming, civic-minded -- and devoid of mystery.

Recasting the business biography as a study in self-sabotage.

Frank McCourt's latest is another virtuoso display of charm and sheer likeability. But the suspicion arises: Is he really a misanthrope?

A Canadian general recounts his efforts to stop the Rwandan genocide—and then to remain sane.

Having exorcised the demons of her creepy incestuous affair in a best-selling memoir, Kathryn Harrison returns to fiction to explore a creepy sexual fetish, foot-binding.

Steven Pinker aims to make the world safe for genetic scientists. But in debunking the idea of the blank slate, is he fighting the last war?

Michel Houellebecq, France’s bard of sex and anomie, finds an unlikely kindred spirit in H. P. Lovecraft.