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What Did You Do Today? by Anthony VaralloFiction labeled magic realism is sometimes too squishy, to my taste, relying too much on novelty or hoped-for charm. Instead of providing an added...
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Zone 23 by C. J. HopkinsIn his novel Zone 23 (SS&C Press, 483 pages) expat playwright C.J. Hopkins depicts a society, much like ours at its worse — some six or seven...
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The Coincidence Plot by Anil MenonChances are you’ve never heard of Anil Menon. That’s a shame, but not your fault. Anil Menon is a brilliant Indian author writing wild, brainy and...
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A Book with No Author by Brent RobisonLike an ancient Buddhist master, Brent Robison is fond of mind benders, and his restless spirit never tires of questioning reality. In his new...
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There’s Something I Want You to Do, by Charles BaxterThe Short-Story Novel There is probably a better term for this, but I don’t know what it is. I refer to a book of short stories, so put together as...
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Machines Like Me by Ian McEwanMachines Like Me (Nan A. Talese, 352 pages) by Ian McEwan is set in the possible world of the 1980s if Alan Turing had not died in 1954, Kennedy...
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Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu, translated by Sean CotterIn “he Garden of Forking Paths,” Jorge Louis Borges’s postulates a novel so complex it would become “a labyrinth in which all men would...
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Young Pushkin, by Yury TynyanovYury Tynyanov, Young Pushkin: A Novel (translated by Anna Kurkina Rush and Christopher Rush (New York: Overlook/Rookery) 2008, 515 pp. [the Russian...
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Drift by Craig RodgersSometimes a novel’s originality is less a matter of affirmation than an act of refusal. Refusal to go along with received ideas of how to tell a...
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Forgotten Night by Rebecca GoodmanIn Rebecca Goodman’s novel Forgotten Night (Spuyten Duyvil, 296 pages) the unnamed narrator–we will call her N hereafter–is searching desperately...
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Dead Souls by Sam RiviereBelieve the Blurbers Dead Souls (A Novel by Sam Riviere, NY: Catapult, 2021, 289 pp.) is a rare example of a book containing believable blurbs....
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Hiking Underground by Amy SmileyIn Hiking Underground (Atmosphere Press, 203 pages), three urban naturalists explore the relationship between art and reality in episodic reveries...
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MacLeish Sq. by Dennis MustEdward Said, writing about Beethoven’s late style, defined late style as that time wherein the artist freed from the expected cultural and...
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Ponckhockie Union by Brent RobisonPonckhockie Union (Recital Publishing, 208 pages) is a novel for the connoisseur of the uncanny. The story is about Ben Rose, a documentary...
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Don’t Look at Me, by Charles HoldeferGo big or go home. In his new novel Don’t Look at Me (Sagging Meniscus Press, 282 Pages), author Charles Holdefer chooses to go big. At the center...
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The Berserkers by Vic PetersonProminent on the lists of popular commercial fiction and television today is a category called “Scandi-Noir” or “Nordic Noir,” characterized by a...
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Three Days by the Sea by Helen E. MundlerMy initial response when I started to read Helen Mundler’s Three Days by the Sea (Holland House Books, 300 pages) was “Yes, we need more of this.”...
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In the Field by Rachel PastanLiterary fiction about science remains an exception. When C.P. Snow voiced concern in 1959 about “Two Cultures” in reference to the growing gap...
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Commentary on Analysis by George Saunders of Story by Anton Chekhov“In the Cart” (Yarmolinsy Translation) From the book by George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain Note: I taught Russian literature in a...
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“In the Wagon” (“На подводе”), by Anton Chekhov[Note: the story has appeared in English translation under a variety of titles; I know of at least three: “The Schoolmistress” (Constance...
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Renato! by Eugene MirabelliRenato! (McPherson & Co, 577 pages) is a vast, rambling, delightful tale about the life and loves of Renato Stillamare, a once noted painter...
