Picks of the Week

IMPOSSIBLE, by Nancy Werlin

(originally posted on October 26, 2008)

Werlin is one of the best suspense novelists we have, and it doesn't matter a whit that her work is classified in young adult literature because her novels deal with real teens in situations that force the reader to think deeply and turn page after page. That literary alchemic mix is on full display here, though the trappings are of a more magical bent, what with a curse visited upon the Scarborough women through many generations, redefining true love in a quaint yet terribly modern fashion and a deep understanding about how mental illness wrecks the lives of many. Not to mention you'll never think of "Scarborough Fair" the same way again.

SHERLOCK HOLMES WAS WRONG, by Pierre Bayard

(originally posted on October 26, 2008)

Could it be that Sherlock Holmes so misinterpreted what happened in THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES that he got everything wrong? Sacre bleu! But Bayard, who has a history of turning detective fiction and other classic works on their ear through a series of inquiries he calls "detective criticism", is both serious and playful with his thesis, and as a result I found myself picking apart Conan Doyle's own writing along with Bayard to start buying into a wholly different killer operating well below the author's radar. It's all in good fun, but it never hurts to ponder whether the relationship between what the author wrote and intended isn't proportional, but inversely proportional.

THE ESSENTIAL DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR, by Alison Bechdel

(originally posted on October 26, 2008)

When FUN HOME came out in 2006 I was among many, many new readers to Bechdel's work, discovering how canny she was in portraylng her family's foibles and warts. But this collection of her longtime comic strip (which recently suspended production after 25 years!) is just amazing stuff - taking storytelling chances, depicting real actions and consequences, never shying away from tough political issues and always showing the lives of women who are or happen to be lesbians as they see fit, not how others may affix that label upon them. And since I read this earlier in October I've had a tough time finding books that measure up, that's how good it is.

A RULE AGAINST MURDER, by Louise Penny

(originally posted on October 26, 2008)

Decades from now, I suspect we'll look upon the works of Louise Penny and find all sorts of marvels that show just how well and why the books hold up. It's the way she tweaks the rules of Golden Age Detective Fiction but doesn't shy away from attitudes, mores and slang that is thoroughly modern. Her fourth novel featuring canny but jovial police inspector Armand Gamache takes a Christie-like cue with members of the Finney family start dying off at their homestead, the inevitable victims of a seething cauldron of emotions boiling over after years of dormancy. The temptation is to scarf Penny's books like potato chips but it's ever wise to savor each bite and let the flavors fill your tongue.

THE PUGILIST AT REST, by Thom Jones

(originally posted on October 26, 2008)

This short story collection is 15 years old and it feels like it was written this past year. It blew me away with its searing depictions of army members in the midst of cracking up, women caught in self-destructive relationships and other people locked into patterns that are destined to repeat themselves and produce worlds of hurt. Jones lived and hurt for years before he produced the stories that made up this 1993 collection, and even though a couple more volumes of stories followed, it really feels like he's been off the radar for years. Hopefully he'll be back soon with more tales of the dark side of reality.