Comics OperaSet in the comic-book business, Michael Chabon’s surprising new novel reaches for grand themes. Could this be the next Great American Novel?
Big Blue MarbleDavid Mitchell’s ambitious and weighty first novel follows a daisy chain of characters through every time zone and across the gamut of individua […]
Bed and BoredHard-bitten authors Candace Bushnell and Lucinda Rosenfeld give us two satires of sex and single girls. But can comic cynicism hide their romant […]
The Powers That BleedJane Mendelsohn returns with an arty tale of young girls and the vampires who love them; Rebecca Goldstein shows that even scientists can believ […]
Uneasy PiecesDavid Malouf’s striking new book sustains his obsession with the tension between Culture and Nature; strangely, Noël Coward’s novel does th […]
Saints Preserve UsIf you can find it, Hannah Green’s posthumous book about Saint Foy – along with her “near-perfect” novel – will renew your sense of faith.
Troubled HarryHarry Potter’s appeal isn’t the cutesy magic but his struggle with the anxieties of pubescence; adults struggle with a childhood without innocence.
Goomba GothicWith “The Godfather,” Mario Puzo invented a genre mixing family rituals with vengeful violence. “Omerta” shows it outlives him – just barely.
White WashEdmund White’s reputation has mushroomed in recent years. But his talent, compared to a younger generation of gay writers, looks like it’s shrunk.
Banks’s AccountA collection from 37 years of Russell Banks’s short stories displays the talents of a writer known more for the chilly films made from his novels.
Roth’s CausePhilip Roth is trying to tell us something in his second artistic wind, a trilogy that binds the American dream to our recent national nightmares.
Easy ReaderHarold Bloom’s windy boasting about the books he’s read blows a chance to teach the magic of literature, but Geoffrey O’Brien gets the job done.
Hideous KinkyHaving exorcised the demons of her creepy incestuous affair in a best-selling memoir, Kathryn Harrison returns to fiction to explore a creepy se […]
