By
New York Times:
- Sunday Book Review cover: Pico Iyer onThe Vagrants by Yiyun Li: "If 'The Vagrants' sounds like a grim and lightless book, though
heart-rending at every turn, it is. Steadily collecting atrocities and
amassing paragraphs with the solidity of bricks, it replaces the tender
ease and range of some of Li's earlier stories with a much more
focused, imprisoned rage. It can seem, in fact, less like a novel "”
since movement and plot are fairly sparing "” than a counter-document of
sorts, a private, unsanctioned portrait of those interiors (in every
sense) that are always left out of the grand official picture. It is an
individual's response to a collectivist madness, and since that
individual is a novelist, it goes into precisely those places,
psychological and emotional, that five-year plans try to deny or
idealize out of existence." - David Gates's turn onThe Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell (more forgiving than some of the other pans, but still a pan): "You can't blame Littell for failing an impossible self-assignment. Nor
can you fault a young novelist with a world of information, erudition
and ambition for taking it on. (How ya gonna keep 'em down on
Revolutionary Road after they've seen Auschwitz?) But to doll up a
novel about Nazism and the Holocaust with pop-fiction conventions on
the one hand "” his narrator's Forrest Gump-likeubiquity, for instance "”
and quirky postmodern touches on the other is to dance on the edge of
impertinence." - Kakutani onHouse of Cards by William D. Cohan: "Like Michael Lewis's 'Liar's Poker' and Bryan Burrough and John
Helyar's 'Barbarians at the Gate,' this volume turns complex Wall
Street maneuverings into high drama that is gripping "” and almost
immediately comprehensible "” to the lay reader.... Mr. Cohan writes with an
insider's knowledge of the workings of Wall Street, a reporter's
investigative instincts and a natural storyteller's narrative command,
and he fleshes out the timeline of the firm's calamitous final week
with myriad new details and recent interviews with some of the firm's
principals, including its flamboyant chairman and longtime chief
executive, Jimmy Cayne, who often seemed more interested in playing
golf and attending bridge tournaments than in tending to his company's
business." - Maslin on The Cradle by Patrick Somerville: "Mr. Somerville has the chops to keep this story from softening into
the generic mush suggested by his premise.... In a streamlined 200-page book
that works as a fully conceived novel, he tells an endearing story full
of genuinely surprising turns. And while Matt is quietly and
whimsically buffeted by fortune, there's no Gump or Garp in him."
Washington Post:
- Charles on The Believers by Zoe Heller: "If you need to like the characters to enjoy a novel, skip right on to
something more heartwarming because Heller is the master of unpleasant
people. It's a testament to her respect for the full spectrum of human
nature that her fiercely drawn characters endure satiric exposure that
would burn weaker ones to a crisp.... All of these moments, even the most painful ones, constantly vibrate
with Heller's wit, her steely attention to our delicate egos and
desperate longings. Somewhere between the novels of Allegra Goodman and
Claire Messud, 'The Believers' charts out a terrain all its own. If you
haven't read Heller yet, prepare to be converted." - Yardley onWedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore by Wendy Moore: "She has done a heroic amount of research, bringing her characters to
life with singular verisimilitude and portraying 18th-century courtship
and marriage in full detail, never forgetting that although Mary
Eleanor Bowes was uncommonly privileged and wealthy, at root her lot
was that of every other woman of her day....Though the yellow press of the time portrayed her as not much better
than a prostitute, the person who emerges in Moore's careful portrait
is honorable and brave. 'Wedlock' is serious, perceptive, thoughtful
and -- by no means least -- compulsively readable."
Los Angeles Times:
- Tim Rutten on Cohan's House of Cards: "It seems almost achingly quaint to recall those warm and hazy days when 'banker' was a synonym for sobriety and propriety.... Anyone who still retains such antique illusions will lose them in fewer
than 10 pages into 'House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched
Excess on Wall Street,' William D. Cohan's masterfully reported account
of the collapse of Bear Stearns.... [H]e deploys not only his hands-on experience of this exotic corner of
the financial industry but also a remarkable gift for plain-spoken
explanation. That's essential, because it may be that only quantum
physics defies the descriptive powers of ordinary language quite so
completely as the derivatives markets whose meltdowns have devastated
Wall Street." - Paula L. Woods onThe Tourist by Olen Steinhauer: "Although readers can hope to see it on the screen, 'The Tourist' should
be savored now. As rich and intriguing as the best of Le Carré,
Deighton or Graham Greene, Steinhauer's complex, moving spy novel is
perfect for our uncertain, emotionally fraught times."
Wall Street Journal:
- David Propson on Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey: "Drawing on unprecedented access to Cheever's papers and family, Mr.
Bailey approaches his subject like a concerned parole officer -- rarely
letting Cheever's accounts of events pass unchallenged, countering both
his subject's soaring enthusiasms and paranoid forebodings with
clear-eyed judgment. Mr. Bailey's frighteningly thorough unwinding of
Cheever's working methods occasionally threatens to make the fiction
seem a mere footnote to the life."
Globe & Mail:
- Wow, it continues: Andre Alexis (one of my favorite Canadian writers) weighs in mostly on the plus side for The Kindly Ones: "So is it a great novel, then? It's been compared to War and Peace,
but no, I don't think it is great, not in its execution.... All of that said, The Kindly Ones is a work of art in its
conception, admirable in what it sets out to do and in how much it
accomplishes. Jonathan Littell has said that he wished to write a work
that asked fundamental questions in compelling ways. In this, he has
succeeded completely. As I mentioned, I think the debate around this
novel is crucial, the kind of debate we need to have once a generation,
if not more often. Not just 'what is it to be a victim?' and 'what is
it to suffer?' but also 'what is it to inflict suffering?' 'what is it
to transgress?' In that it encourages real (and sometimes deeply
unpleasant) thought, The Kindly Ones is an important work. In that it keeps it eye on the wavering idea of what it is to be human, it's masterful." - J.C. Sutcliffe on Heller's The Believers: "Although Notes on a Scandal was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, The Believers didn't even make it onto the long list. This is astonishing, given the novel's accomplishments and maturity. The Believers
is funny, serious, well plotted and well written, sympathetic without
being sentimental, thought-provoking and enjoyable; in short, that rare
specimen every reader hopes for when opening a new book." [Geez, I loved Notes from a Scandal--under its fabulous pre-movie US title, What Was She Thinking?--but The Believers just didn't work for me. But I'm clearly in the minority...] - Alan Furst on Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada: "Now, this is not the way these things are supposed to go; the reviewer
is assumed to approach a new work in a condition known as 'fair and
impartial.' Well, 'fair,' I don't know, but 'impartial,' definitely not.... What kind of human, given the circumstances under which Every Man Dies Alone was written, could be impartial about it?... At the end of the day, Every Man Dies Alone is a testament,
nothing less. It is Fallada's attempt to retrieve the few shreds of
honour and courage that the Nazis, no matter how viciously they tried,
could not manage to destroy. Thus, in his way, Fallada can be seen as a
hero, a writer-hero who survived just long enough to strike back at his
oppressors. And it is in his honour, as a fellow novelist, that I wrote
this review."
The Guardian:
- Maya Jaggi onBurnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie: "The huge ambition of Kamila Shamsie's fifth novel is announced in the
prologue. As an unnamed captive is unshackled and stripped naked in
readiness for the anonymity of an orange jumpsuit, he wonders: 'How did
it come to this?' The vastness of the question as applied to a prisoner
in Guantánamo is a challenge to which this epic yet skilfully
controlled novel rises in oblique and unexpected ways.... Any reader anticipating a predictable yarn about the radicalisation of
Islamist youth may feel cheated. Far more, I suspect, will feel
challenged and enlightened, possibly provoked, and undoubtedly enriched."
The New Yorker:
- Joan Acocella on Dracula by Bram Stoker (including The New Annotated Dracula): "But why does the book have a cult? Well, cults often gather around
powerful works of the second rank. Fans feel that they have to root for
them. What, then, is the source of 'Dracula' 's power? A simple device,
used in many notable works of art: the deployment of great and volatile
forces within a very tight structure.... This minute-by-minute recording, as Samuel Richardson, its pioneer
(in 'Pamela'), discovered a century and a half earlier, lends
urgency"”you are there!"”and, again, it seems a warrant of truth. But
the narrative method is not the only thing that provides a tight
receptacle for the story. Most of this tale of the irrational is
filtered through minds wedded to rationalism."
--Tom
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