Follow Me

Picks of the Week

  • Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)

    Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)
    One would think this book is about sex, And while it is, since the characters have so much about it, some of it is kinky, and threesomes play a big role in the narrative. mostly POLITICS is about everything else: the mechanics, the logistics, the emotional minefields, the awkward questions, the moral dilemmas, and, well, the politics of what it is to be with someone you love or someone you don't, and how an act that should be simple is anything but. Thirlwell was disgustingly young when he wrote this but he absolutely understands that to make this book work, there must be an underlying sweetness and sincerity to the entire story. Now I want to see what he's up to more recently. Amazon | Indiebound | B & N | Borders | Powell’s

  • Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir

    Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir
    Years ago I was blown away by Mascia's Modern Love piece describing her parents' secret past: her father was a mobbed-up convicted murderer, and her mother not only knew all about it, but aided and abetted her husband when life required being a fugitive, selling drugs, and living at great highs and crushing lows. Mascia's book tells a more whole story about her peripatetic life, and even with every new shocking revelation what remained consistent was how much she loved her parents, no matter how deep those lows went, and how much she misses them now that they are gone. Unconditional love never goes away, no matter if those who receive it deserve it. Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N | Powell’s

  • Juli Zeh: In Free Fall

    Juli Zeh: In Free Fall
    Give me a novel of ideas and if the story is good and the characters are believable and entertain me, I am there. Give me a crime novel of ideas, where two physics professors, friends and rivals, opposites but startlingly similar, do emotional battle on an intellectual canvas, raise the stakes through betrayal, the possible kidnapping of a child, and embroil a romantic-leaning police detective in the complicated machinations of quantum theory, and holy hell, I think I have myself one of my favorite books of the year. Powell’s | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N

  • Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts

    Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts
    It appears to be a crime with an easy solution: a disgruntled schoolteacher shoots up his place of employment and kills several students in the process. But really, Lelic's novel is about the catastrophic consequences of bullying, and how this act is hardly limited to kids turning on other kids, but burrows deeply into adult relationships as well. He evokes empathy for the killer and sympathy for Lucia, the investigating officer who has to fight for every scrap of dignity as she pieces together the far more complex truth of what really happened at the school. Powell’s | Amazon | Borders | Indiebound | B & N

  • William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley

    William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley
    I cannot stop raving about this book to people. The circular narrative structure, the demented feel of a traveling carny troupe, and the extraordinary rise and precipitous fall of Stan Carlisle give off the persistent, raging feeling that hell is always with us, and success is basically a sucker's game. No matter what the biographical evidence on Gresham's state of mind leading up to and after the book's bestseller (and movie basis) status in 1946, I don't think we can really know what demons plagued him to produce this marvelous noir gem. B & N | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | Powell’s

Archived Picks

...And Cabana Girls, Too

Stats


« The Shamus Award nominees | Main | Adventures in marketing bullshit »

June 06, 2005

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451af9169e200d83457b2ab69e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The BEA Hangover Weekend Update:

» Because Women Merely Put Out for a Lucky Stud, Marry and Reproduce, and Write "Chick Lit" Novels from Edward Champion's Return of the Reluctant
I'll have more to say about this nonsense when I get to the Tanenhaus Brownie Watch, but Sarah and Carrie have some interesting thoughts on the chicklit problem.... [Read More]

Comments

Otis

I have to agree with you on two things, Sarah. First, Sittenfeld's review was way over the snobby line almost to the point of parody. And, second, yes, bring back the illegal red dress and knee high stiletto black boots.

m.j. rose

What great reviews David gave Laura, Lee and Julia. I can't wait to read all three and am thrilled for them. What a season the summer is shaping up to be.

Laura

I finished THE WONDER SPOT yesterday afternoon and am more inclined to agree with today's review (at least the best parts, not the caveats) by Janet Maslin. It is a better book than Bank's first, which I Iiked very much. It's the kind of book that makes a writer (well, a generous writer) stop and admire individual lines. Bank's work has an elliptical grace. What she leaves out is often better than what a lot of writers put in, if that makes any sense.

My hunch is that this take-down was Sittenfield's initiation into the Mean Girls literati. Meanwhile, she complained that she wasn't "one iota smarter" after reading it. In that case, I want to note that PREP actually made me feel stupider. I put it down midway through because its pretty little sentences could not make up for the nothing-happening solipsism. Contrast PREP's treatment of girls' friendships with THE WONDER SPOT and it will be found wanting. It was a very young writer's book. And if Sophie Applebaum is a fictional slut -- I think there are perhaps seven-10 men in her life, which ranges from 13 to 40, then I am the Whore of Babylon.

As for Nick Hornby -- well, I'm indebted to him, so I'll note it's not a consensus: PW gave it a starred review. And I'm not one to invest the pre-pubs with God-like power just now. In fact, in interest of full disclosure, my latest book is drawing the most polarized reviews of my career.

Couldn't be prouder.

Jenny D

Isn't it possible that Sittenfeld didn't realize how catty the points about sluts would sound? I don't know--I certainly haven't read THE WONDER SPOT--but I was not an admirer of THE GIRLS GUIDE TO HUNTING AND FISHING. Everyone was raving about it, I read it with reasonably high hopes and actually thought it was extremely weak--give me BRIDGET JONES any day... I am firmly against the linked short-story collection as an alternative to the novel, I suppose there are a handful of good ones but to me they always feel like a cop-out. Mind you, this is all just my personal taste.... but I thought the Sittenfeld review gave off the feeling of a reluctant criticism by someone who would have really liked to like the book but just didn't.

David J. Montgomery

Where do I sign up to become a member of the Mean Girls literati?

Sounds hot.

Laura

I prefer novels, too, but I think THE WONDER SPOT made the form work.

And if Sittenfield is that naive -- well, that explains a lot about what I found lacking in PREP.

Jenny D

In a Mean Girl confession of my own, I will say that I was so consumed with envy about PREP's extreme (& slightly irrational?) success that I have sworn not to read it & wince when I see it in a bookstore!

Laura

Jenny, I came to PREP in the most open-hearted, affirmative spirit. I had put off reading it because I was deep in my own universe of adolescent girls and I attacked the novel it as if it were a long-denied treat.

It simply didn't work for me. I suppose if I wanted to ape her style, I would begin a review: "Perhaps it's a bit mean-spirited to point out that one can be a nerd _and_ a bitch . . ."

The most recent thread at my blog centered on childhood slights. Karen Olson wondered if all writers were once victims. Yes. But we are often victimizers, too, and it was that awareness I found lacking in PREP. One could argue that was the point -- that the character was clueless about her own cruelty and selfishness, that these qualities appeared in response to the culture in which she found herself. And perhaps if I could have finished the darn thing, I would have been rewarded.

Jenny D

I have just written a novel about adolescent girls as well, a school novel really, so I know what you're saying. (BTW Kazuo Ishiguro's NEVER LET ME GO is the must-read in this category--it is so, so good on delicate mapping of slights between teenage girls...) I'm going to go and read your comments thread right away! Thanks for your thoughtful comments here, too, very informative....

Elaine Flinn

A bumpy ride? There was a time in my life when that would have sounded like fun. But now? On the other hand, what the hell. Bring it on, Otis!

The comments to this entry are closed.