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Picks of the Week

  • Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen

    Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen
    BAD THINGS HAPPEN is a nifty debut, cleverly told and unfurled from the very first line: "The shovel has to meet certain requirements" on through meeting "the man who calls himself David Loogan." There are reasons for concealment, just as there are reasons the editor of a mystery magazine bearing little resemblance to EQMM or AHMM might bring him into the fold, thus catalyzing a series of murderous events. The twists come quickly and the dialogue is sharp and if it falls apart slightly at the end, no matter - I want to read much more from Dolan from now on.

  • Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel

    Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel
    MacKenzie's debut novel reminded me a lot of Paul Auster's NEW YORK TRILOGY, whether it was intended or not, in terms of his choice of words, the thrust of the narrative and the existential nature of the main character (whose first name, incidentally, is Paul) caught up in a snowballing sequence of strange and violent events in and around New York City. MacKenzie straddles the line between thriller and internal examination of a man's failings, and his ability to do so establishes him as a young writer of serious talent and future.

  • Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep

    Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep
    In a word: amazing. In more words: Megan Abbott, who has never delivered anything less than an excellent novel, exceeds expectations and takes a very bold and very necessary step forward both in the quality of the prose, the development of her characters and especially in portraying how obsession seeps into the very soul of people, transforming them into their worst nightmares all too easily. Just read this book. And then tell many others to do so as well.

  • Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit

    Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
    Understandably, echoes of THE HANDMAID'S TALE are hard to ignore in this dystopic examination of a society where fertility is so high a priority that older, single, marginal women are shut away in secret locales to live out the rest of their lives in seemingly perfect harmony - at least, until the "donations" begin. But Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look at the plight of all marginalized folk, women and men alike, and how the promise of comforts can be the most horrifying of all. Prepare to be disturbed, but prepare further to think about the ramifications.

  • Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde

    Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde
    This is possibly the most perfect novel for today's economically challenged times. Why? Because it has plenty of glitz and glamor and blind items, as befitting a narrative by the deputy editor of Page Six, but Froelich isn't arch or snarky or acid-tongued in the slightest. Her trio of protagonists land in all manner of embarrassing situations but they aren't played for mean-spirited laughs. The New York here is something of a fantasy-land, but not so far off the mark that it's completely unbelievable. Most of all it's clear Froelich remains sincere and optimistic about her chosen city, and has retained her sense of fun. So no need to check your brain at the door, but sometimes it just needs to chill out and relax.

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« Beyond the Truth/Stranger/Fiction continuum | Main | Smatterings »

May 26, 2004

Helen DeWitt found safe

Thankfully, the missing novelist has turned up in Niagara Falls, where she's been known to haunt previously:

Missing novelist Helen DeWitt turned up Wednesday in Niagara Falls, N.Y., after vanishing from her Staten Island home, police said.

Dewitt, who had been described as suicidal, was found in good condition, New York police said. She was to be taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Niagara Falls Police Department officers had been asked by New York City police to watch out for DeWitt, who wrote the critically acclaimed "The Last Samurai," Niagara Lt. Joe Morrison said.

"She had a history here," said Morrison, who had no details about how she was found.


Wonderful news, and here's hoping she can get the rest and help she needs.

Comments

Kafkaesque experience. Cop says: If you don't come voluntarily I have to take you in. It's better if you come voluntarily. Guy at NF psychiatric ward says: you can be admitted voluntarily or involuntarily. If you don't apply for voluntary admission I'll have to admit you involuntarily. I don't have all night. I'll come back in 5 minutes. If this form isn't signed I'll admit you involuntarily. "Voluntarily" means you are interrogated throughout the night. One person after another asks you the same set of questions - your basic book tour scenario, basically. If you can do a book tour, you can talk your way out of a psychiatric ward. Now I'm in Berlin.

Berlin. A chance to work on your German.

Three years ago I read your book. When I read the lat page, I turned to the first and started again. When I finished the scond time, I read it out loud to my wife while she knit.

Today I have it at my bedside and page through it now and then, saying "I must consult Ms DeWitt."

Thank you for striking a style that amazes.

While watching "Mifune" for the umpteenth time I thought of De Witt and her opera prima(which I've only read twice), the remarkable Last Samurai(by contrast to the emetic Last Samurai, Tom Cruise's evaporated instant bushido) So, as the credits rolled I began looking for recent news about HD, her works in progress, etc and stumbled across your page. Thank you for the Newsday filler. And thanks for posting the comment from one Helen DeWitt. I'd go to Niagara Falls just for the Houdini museum.(Come to think of it H. was a samurai in Dewitt's sense)Either way I've done the mayeutic dance meself with more than one of "order's agents".(a literal translation from the Castillian) Our steroid-addled sociopaths who are nightly glorified on cop tv wouldn't have passed muster in pre WWI Prague's Dept. of Public Safety. I actualy escaped from St. Elisabeths, from villains intent on coercing me into commiting acts of free volition,ersatz voluntary behavior! If only I had been able to reach a Berlin... or even a Flensberg. Well, I hope HD is still in Berlin. If you hear from her, Mr. Koval, please forward my e-address. Please tell her that I offer her sin condiciones a sweet place of refuge in the sub-tropics where she can behave as she likes in inviolable privacy, safe from order's agents and kindred schmucks.

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