'Ride Around Shining' Reimagines Gatsby's Nouveau-Riche Excess
Most sports novels are about the aspiration to excel physically: to run faster, stretch out one's arms farther. The really cool thing about Ride Around Shining, a debut novel by Chris Leslie-Hynan, is...
View ArticleIn A Funny New Novel, A Weary Professor Writes To 'Dear Committee Members'
For all you teachers out there contemplating the August calendar with dismay, watching, powerless, as the days of summer vacation dwindle down to a precious few, I have some consolation to offer: a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nostalgic For Noir? Feiffer's 'Kill My Mother' Is A Toxic Treat
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and children's book illustrator and author Jules Feiffer...
View Article'10:04': A Strange, Spectacular Novel Connecting Several Plotlines
I admired Ben Lerner's last novel a lot; in fact, I ended my review of Leaving the Atocha Station by saying that "reading it was unlike any other novel-reading experience I've had for a long time." I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Futuristic 'Bone Clocks' Encompasses A Strange, Rich World Of Soul-Stealers
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Novelist David Mitchell is the author of "Cloud Atlas,""The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De...
View ArticleAfter WWI, A Mother And Daughter Must Take In 'Paying Guests'
Sarah Waters' new novel, The Paying Guests, is a knockout, which isn't a word any of her characters would use.The book opens in 1922: The Edwardian Age, with its high collars and long skirts, is dead;...
View Article'Florence Gordon' Isn't Friend Material, But You'll Appreciate Her
Last year, the big debate in the world of books was over the question of whether or not a novel has to feature "likeable" main characters in order for readers to identify with them or make us want to...
View Article'The Assassination Of Margaret Thatcher' And Other Stories From Hilary Mantel
A new Hilary Mantel book is an Event with a "capital "E." Here's why: The first two best-selling novels in Mantel's planned trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, each won...
View ArticleThe Incredible Story Of Chilean Miners Rescued From The 'Deep Down Dark'
The disaster began on a day shift around lunchtime at a mine in Chile's Atacama Desert: Miners working deep inside a mountain, excavating for copper, gold and other minerals, started feeling...
View ArticleSuperstorm Sandy Inspires Bleak, Poetic Landscapes In 'Let Me Be Frank'
It's such a goofy title. Let Me Be Frank with You is the latest installment in the odyssey of Frank Bascombe, the New Jersey Everyman Richard Ford introduced almost 30 years ago in his novel, The...
View ArticleDecades Later, Laurie Colwin's Books 'Will Not Let You Down'
Many years ago, Laurie Colwin began an essay she wrote about the magic of roast chicken like this: "There is nothing like roast chicken. It is helpful and agreeable, the perfect dish no matter what the...
View Article
