Elizabeth Frank: Cheat and Charmer: A Novel
I don't think this book is in heavy rotation on the book-club circuit, but it should be. It's a terribly engrossing tale of Hollywood during the blacklist years, told as a 19th century-style narrative: i.e., a ripping good yarn. (****)
Richard Ford: Independence Day
Hilarious, spot-on riffs about middle-aged white men and the cars they drive, women they love, and children they avoid. Ford manages cynical social commentary without seeming snarky or disaffected. He's so affected he has to expose the stink of our shit. (****)
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood
Ground-breaking for the time, time-breaking for our new ground. In other words, Capote's copious imagining of the psychological underpinnings of the killers and victims must have seemed revolutionary, but now just make the pages turn slowly. I'm glad I've read it, though. (***)
vivian gornick: fierce attachments
Changed my life. Riveting. Like walking through a castle made of words. Her thoughts are so palpable they feel like stone. Memoir of Ms. Gornick's Bronx upbringing. Meditation on how, as she's written later, she became her mother. Am reading now her other sort-of memoir, "Approching Eye Level." (*****)
Anne Kingston: The Meaning of Wife
Jaunty and jargon-free feminist critique that, brilliantly, includes Lifetime Television-grade domestic drama while exposing its fallacies. A must-read. (****)
Dinesh D'Souza: Illiberal Education
"What, are you dating a right-wing rock and roll star?" She replies, "I like to hear all sides." As do I. (**)
Louis Begley: Wartime Lies
Mesmerizing. Little Maciek and his Aunt Tania go through it all surviving the War. They never entered a camp. Begley seems to withhold a bit. The narrative ends precipitously. He wants to shut some feelings out... (****)
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Dara writes:
If you like your wit dry, like your martinis, check out the new blog by Steven Yong Lee, a talented chap with whom I have taught at B.B.S. Academy in Bayside, Queens.
He describes The Melancholy Korean as "a narrative blog, an electronic version of the serial novel." A great idea, I think.
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