Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein By Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Bill Franzen
A selectively argued new book opens fire on American Gulf War policy toward Iraq and charges the U.S. with letting Saddam off easy.
(03/17/99)
S.: A Novel About the Balkans By Slavenka Drakulic (Fiction)
Viking, review by Brigitte Frase
A fierce novel brings home the horrors of the Bosnian war -- rape, torture and the sexual slavery of Muslim women.
(02/08/00)
The Abyssinian By Jean-Christophe Rufin (Fiction)
W.W. Norton & Company, reviewed by Brigitte Frase
A prize-winning French novel turns out to be a mound of merde.
(09/22/99)
The Boy on the Green Bicycle By Margaret Diehl (Nonfiction)
Soho Press, Reviewed by John Freeman
A writer remembers the horror of her brother's death when she was 9 -- and the pain and growth that came of it.
(08/23/99)
Lives of the Monster Dogs By Kirsten Bakis (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Lise Funderburg
A fantastical first novel, set in New York City in 2008, about a pack of vicious but super-intelligent dogs that become (for a while, anyway) the toast of the town.
Love Invents Us By Amy Bloom (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Lise Funderberg
A shaggily eloquent coming-of-age story about a young suburban girl's odd affair with a furrier and friendship with an old woman.
The Aguero Sisters By Cristina Garcia (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Lise Funderberg
A review of Cristina Garcia's novel "The Aguero Sisters," by Lise Funderberg.
The Trouble With Testosterone By Robert Sapolsky (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Lise Funderburg
Gentle, provocative essays from a behavioral biologist who smuggles hard science into commentaries on life, death, faith, individuality and love.
STEAL THIS DREAM: Abbie Hoffman and the Countercultural Revolution Against America By Larry Sloman (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by David Futrelle
This oral biography of Abbie Hoffman is both fascinating and hideously depressing.
(08/03/98)
The Hitler of History By John Lukacs (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A lucid study of Adolf Hitler's Germany, as viewed through the eyes of his many biographers.
Rising Tide By John M. Barry (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by David Futrelle
An often fascinating account of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, a slow-motion, not-quite-natural disaster of tremendous proportions.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly By Jean-Dominique Bauby (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A remarkable memoir, from the former editor of French Elle, about his complete paralysis following a massive stroke.
Ten Indians By Madison Smartt Bell (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
In this novel, by the author of "All Souls Rising," a middle-aged therapist opens a Tae Quon Do school in Baltimore's inner city.
Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline By Robert H. Bork (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by David Futrelle
Bombast and moralizing on the depravity of American pop culture from the judge who didn't make it to the Supreme Court.
Pass the Butterworms: Recent Journeys Oddly Rendered By Thomas Cahill (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by David Futrelle
A pioneer of non-macho adventure travel writing reports from the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Mongolian steppes and other locales.
Scorpion Tongues By Gail Collins (Nonfiction)
William Morrow, Reviewed by David Futrelle
An often entertaining account of American political scandal and gossip, from Thomas Jefferson to Bill Clinton.
The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and The Brain By Terrence W. Deacon (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
A serious and often well-argued look, from a researcher at Boston University, at how language is "hard-wired" into the brain.
THE BEAST IN THE NURSERY: On Curiosity and Other Appetites By Adam Phillips (Nonfiction)
Pantheon books,, Reviewed by David Futrelle
From the quirky and lucid British psychoanalyst, a look at the origins of -- and the problems inherent in -- curiosity
(02/11/98)
How Proust Can Change Your Life By Alain de Botton (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
Part self-help, part literary criticism, this book turns to the hypochondriac writer for advice on moral and personal problems.
ALWAYS IN PURSUIT: Fresh American Perspectives, 1995-1997 By Stanley Crouch (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by David Futrelle
Punditry about politics and culture, from the New York Daily News columnist and New Republic contributing editor
(02/25/98)
MONSTER:
Living off the Big Screen By John Gregory Dunne (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by David Futrelle
A darkly humorous first-hand account of the perils of Hollywood screenwriting.
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson By Joseph J. Ellis (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A subtle portrait of our often contradictory third president, a fierce democrat who surrounded himself with aristocratic opulence.
American Nomad: Pop Visions, Restless Politics, and Apocalyptic Memories at the End of the Millennium By Steve Erickson (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by David Futrelle
One of the strangest volumes of presidential campaign reportage ever written, commissioned by -- but not printed in -- Rolling Stone.
Last Gang in Town By Marcus Gray (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by David Futrelle
A warts-and-all portrait of The Clash, who were, if only briefly, the greatest rock and roll band in the world.
Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century By Stephen Fenichell (Nonfiction)
Harper Business, reviewed by David Futrelle
An lively cultural history of plastic, from its invention in the 1860s through its myriad (and often controversial) applications today.
What I Really Want to Do is Direct By Billy Frolick (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by David Futrelle
A brisk and unflinching look at the fate of several recent film school grads in the grotesque, treacherous world of professional filmmaking.
Monogamy By Adam Phillips
(Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
A quirky collection of 121 miniature essays about relationships and their discontents, from the British writer and psychoanalyst.
Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light By Tyler Stovall (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by David Futrelle
This elegant history relates how black American artists — including Richard Wright and James Baldwin — fled to mid 20th century Paris.
NOW AND THEN: From Coney Island to Here By Joseph Heller (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A rambling, frequently amusing memoir about a childhood spent on Coney Island, from the author of "Catch-22."
(02/02/98)
Commodify Your Dissent: The Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age: Salvos from the Baffler Edited by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
"Baffler" book: Your culture-crit rantings grow tiresome
The Living and the Dead By Paul Hendrickson (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A brilliant portrait of Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and five others who were radically changed by the War.
Thrift Score By Al Hoff (Fiction)
HarperPerennial, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A pleasingly off-kilter guide to shopping in thrift stories, from the editor of a zine of the same name.
(12/19/97)
Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood By bell hooks (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by David Futrelle
The often polemical hooks delivers an unexpectedly poignant and eloquent evocation of the pleasures and the sorrows of her childhood.
Portrait of My Body By Phillip Lopate (Nonfiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by David Futrelle
A new collection of essays from the author of "Against Joie de Vivre," on subjects ranging from broken relationships to "shushing" people in theaters.
The Undertaking: Studies From The Dismal Trade By Thomas Lynch (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by David Futrelle
This lucid memoir, written by a Michigan poet who is also an undertaker, also critiques America's attitudes about death.
The Anatomy of Disgust By William Ian Miller (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by David Futrelle
A compelling exploration of an emotion the author links to misanthropy and a hatred of the fetid fertility of "life soup."
We Were the Mulvaneys By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by David Futrelle
In upstate New York, a compelling modern tragedy details the disintegration of a family in the wake of a daughter's rape.
Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty By Harry Wu with George Vecsey (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by David Futrelle
A memoir by the well-known and controversial Chinese dissident, who seeks to expose the truth about China's forced labor camps.
Hello, He Lied -- and Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches By Lynda Obst (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by David Futrelle
A former New York Times reporter turned Hollywood producer, offers an insider's account of the film industry.
I Know You Really Love Me: A Psychiatrist's Journal of Erotomania, Stalking, and Obsessive Love By Doreen Orion (Nonfiction)
Macmillan, reviewed by David Futrelle
A study of stalkers from a psychiatrist who's been there; she was harassed for eight years by an obsessive patient.
For Shame: The Loss of Common Decency in American Culture By James B. Twitchell (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Futrelle
An inquiry into "the loss of common decency in American culture," from an author known for his critique of advertising
(12/24/97)
After the Madness: A Judge's Own Prison Memoir By Sol Wachtler (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by David Futrelle
The former chief judge of New York writes about his life in prison after his conviction on an ugly, infamous harassment charge.
On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970 By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
Did the advent of the birth control pill really jump-start the sexual revolution? The author argues that the two may not be as closely linked as many people think.
(11/05/98)
Prison Writing in 20th-Century America By H. Bruce Franklin (Nonfiction)
Penguin, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
A lively and often surprising anthology -- writers include Nelson Algren, Malcolm X and Robert Lowell -- that offers a peek into America's criminal justice system.
(09/01/98)
Civility By Stephen L. Carter (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
From the well-known Yale law professor, an argument that American society has grown far too surly and impolite
(05/15/98)
Split By Lisa Michaels (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Jon Garelick
A smart, quiet memoir from a young writer whose parents were members of the Weather Underground in the 1960s
(07/02/98)
Dining Out: Secrets from America's Leading Critics, Chefs, and Restaurateurs By Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (Nonfiction)
Wiley, Reviewed by Dwight Garner
"Dining Out" is crammed with anecdotes about critics' lives and methods, and about the lengths restaurants go to in order to spot them and, ideally, make them happy.
(10/23/98)
RED LOBSTER, WHITE TRASH AND THE BLUE LAGOON: Joe Queenan's America By Joe Queenan (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Dwight Garner
A guided tour through mass American culture (Sizzler steakhouses, Kenny G. albums) from the dyspeptic magazine writer.
(07/15/98)
Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure By Paul Auster (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Dwight Garner
This self-aggrandizing work by novelist Paul Auster is one of the least attractive literary memoirs of recent years.
The Hundred Brothers By Donald Antrim (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Full of Pynchonesque absurdities, this playful and wildly cerebral novel describes 100 brothers who gather for an annual meal.
Acts of Revision By Martyn Bedford (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Dwight Garner
This first novel, set in the U.K., is a psychological thriller about schoolboy humiliation and long-simmering revenge.
Going Down By Jennifer Belle (Fiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A bracing first novel about an NYU undergraduate who, on the brink of financial and emotional collapse, decides to work her way through college as a call
girl.
Down With the Old Canoe By Steven Biel (Nonfiction)
Norton, reviewed by Dwight Garner
This cultural history of the Titanic disaster examines the myriad ways the sinking was used as legend and propaganda.
The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution By Breyten Breytenbach (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Essays about politics and culture from the controversial South African poet and painter best-known for his memoir "The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist."
American Dreamers: The Wallaces and Reader's Digest: An Insider's Story By Peter Canning (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A portrait of the making (and eventual unmaking) of the magazine that has been called "the top publishing success since the Bible."
The Last Thing He Wanted By Joan Didion (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In Didion's steamy political drama, a female Washington Post reporter becomes involved in Iran-contra arms shipments.
Smokestack Lightning By Lolis Eric Elie (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A travel memoir of sorts, in which the author, and a photographer friend, hit the road in search of America's best barbecue.
The Collector Collector By Tibor Fischer (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A slim, absurd novel from the young British novelist Tibor Fischer, narrated by a piece of pottery -- or, as it prefers, "a bowl with a soul."
Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic By Paul Fussell (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An honest, angry memoir, from a noted social critic, about how World War II, and the U.S. Army's fanaticism, forever changed his life.
The Family Markowitz By Allegra Goodman (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Short stories about a cerebral and squabbling extended Jewish family by a young writer with a wonderfully unfussy, matter-of-fact style.
Powertown By Michael Lind
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A political potboiler from a former neo-con insider, featuring overachieving lobbyists, gangbangers and illegal immigrants.
Young Man from the Provinces: A Gay Life Before Stonewall By Alan Helms (Nonfiction)
Faber & Faber, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A frank memoir from the golden boy dubbed by Edmund White "the best piece of ass of my generation."
Le Divorce By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A busy and insightful novel about the cultural and romantic clashes that ensue when several Southern Californian women move to Paris.
Already Dead By
Denis Johnson (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A big, shaggily intellectual crime novel about misfits, burnouts and mystics in laid-back Northern California.
Kinski Uncut By Klaus Kinski (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A raw and misanthropic memoir of compulsive sexual conquest, by the German star of "Fitzcarraldo" and "Nosferatu."
Into the Wild By Jon Krakauer
(Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The true story of Chris McCandless, a young idealist who gave away everything he owned and marched into the Alaskan wilderness in search of "raw, transcendent experience." His body was found a few months later.
Slowness By Milan Kundera (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A fey, funny and somewhat frazzled novel concerning love, fame, hedonism and "the secret bond between slowness and memory."
Dewey Defeats Truman By Thomas Mallon (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A romantic triangle unfolds among the politically earnest residents of the failed 1948 presidential candidate's small home town.
Smoke and Mirrors: Violence, Television, and Other American Cultures By John Leonard (Nonfiction)
The New Press, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Savvy and non-condescending television criticism from the "CBS Sunday Morning" and New York magazine writer.
Sex Death Enlightenment By Mark Matousek (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A quest for spiritual meaning in the age of AIDS, written by a former Interview magazine editor who grew tired of New York City's "self-satisfied nihilism."
Joe Gould's Secret By Joseph Mitchell (Nonfiction)
Modern Library, reviewed by Dwight Garner
One of the long-time New Yorker contributor's best books -- a pair of wry and earthy essays about a famous Greenwich Village writer and rogue, reissued by the Modern Library.
Omon Ra By Victor Pelevin (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In this somewhat surreal fable that satirizes the Soviet space program, a young cosmonaut is asked to sacrifice his life for his country.
Terrors and Experts By Adam Phillips (Nonfiction)
Harvard, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The things we fear, this psychotherapist and charming essayist argues, are often the very things that define us as human beings.
Snakebite Sonnet By Max Phillips (Fiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Dwight Garner
In this lighter-than-air love story, the antic hero pursues his lifelong crush on an enigmatic older woman across three decades.
Accordion Crimes By E. Annie Proulx (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Dwight Garner
To follow-up her acclaimed "The Shipping News," Proulx has written a series of stories about hard-luck immigrants and their deep love of accordion music.
Bad Land: An American Romance By Jonathan Raban (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A hard-scrabble journey through rural life in the American West, from a Brit "trying to find my own place in the landscape and history."
Tender at the Bone By Ruth Reichl (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Dwight Garner
A memoir, from the New York Times restaurant critic, about how food can be a way to make sense of the world
(02/23/98)
Burning The Days: Recollection By James Salter (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A savvy, bittersweet memoir about the author's experiences in the
military, literary and film worlds.
Naked By David Sedaris (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Dark and often prickly comic essays, most of them based on his suburban childhood, from the National Public Radio commentator.
Grey Area By Will Self (Fiction)
Grove/Atlantic, reviewed by Dwight Garner
The jury is still out on British writer Will Self -- is he a genius or merely a willfully perverse showman? If the nine stories here are any
indication, he remains a little of both.
Reality & Dreams By Muriel Spark (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In the author's 20th novel, a cranky, sixtysomething film director is hospitalized after taking a nasty spill while executing a crane shot.
My Other Life By Paul Theroux (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Autobiographical novel or fictional autobiography? Either way, this prickly novel is a skillful meditation on identity and authorship.
Kowloong Tong, The Collected Stories By Paul Theroux (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin and Viking, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An abrupt and often nasty novel about Hong Kong and a devastatingly fine collection of stories, both by the well-known author and travel writer.
Toward the End of Time By John Updike (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Updike's 17th novel charts one man's confrontation with mortality in the year 2020, after a war between the U.S. and China.
I'm Losing You By Bruce Wagner (Fiction)
Villard, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An arch, over-the-top satire of modern Hollywood, peppered with tart jokes about cellular phones, starlets and H.I.V.I.P.s.
Misfit: The Strange Life of Frderick Exley By Jonathan Yardley (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A slim, informal biography of the author of "A Fan's Notes," Frederick Exley, a perpetual misfit who died far too young.
Misha Glenny's "The Balkans" and Michael Ignatieff's "Virtual War" (Nonfiction)
review by Max Garrone
Behind the bombings in Kosovo, two journalists find Western self-interest and self-deception about the physical sacrifice war requires. (05/04/00)
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams By Wayne Johnston (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Roger Gathman
Weaving fact with fiction, a novelist creates a brilliant fantasia on the modern history of Newfoundland.
(07/14/99)
"Bone by Bone" By Peter Matthiessen (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Roger Gathman
The third installment in the Everglades trilogy revisits a lynching -- this time from the victim's point of view.
(04/13/99)
Dead Meat By Sue Coe (Fiction)
Four Walls, Eight Windows, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Paintings, drawings and notes from this compelling artist depict how 6 billion warm-blooded creatures find their way onto American plates.
Derby Duggan's Depression Funnies By Tom De Haven (Fiction)
Metropolitan/Henry Holt, reviewed by Richard Gehr
A picaresque novel, set during the Great Depression, about the creative and cranky artists and writers who creat comic strips.
Last Comes The Egg By Bruce Duffy (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Richard Gehr
In this brightly-colored, ambitious novel of tragicomic adolescence, three motherless boys hit the road.
Because They Wanted To By Mary Gaitskill
(Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Masochistic girls, sadistic boys and other heat-seeking misfits are depicted in the author's second collection of short fiction.
Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia By Robert Greenfield (Nonfiction)
William Morrow & Co., reviewed by Richard Gehr
The private life of the charismatic guitar hero demonstrates that, among other things, no man is a hero to his drug dealer.
A White Merc With Fins By James Hawes (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Richard Gehr
A quixotic, sharply observed first novel, set in England, about a balding, depressed young man who decides to rob an exclusive bank.
Batman Collected By Chip Kidd (Nonfiction)
Bullfinch Press, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Mountains of lovingly-photographed kitsch about the Caped Crusader, compiled by an acclaimed Knopf book designer.
Automated Alice By Jeff Noon (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Richard Gehr
Further tripped-out whimsy from the author of "Vurt," this time, a version of Lewis Carroll's Alice set in 1998 Manchester, England.
Playing the Future By Douglas Rushkoff
(Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Richard Gehr
The next generation of "screenagers," the author argues, can teach us how to prosper in a TV- and computer-dominated culture.
WILL THIS DO?: An Autobiography By Auberon Waugh (Nonfiction)
Carroll & Graff, Reviewed by William Georgiades
An exceptionally entertaining autobiography by the journalist son of Evelyn Waugh
(07/28/98)
Los Alamos By Joseph Kanon (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by William Georgiades
A surprisingly well-written and subtle thriller, set amid the Manhattan Project in 1945, by a first-time writer.
The Art Of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary JournalismEdited by Kevin Kerrane and Ben Yagoda (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by William Georgiades
A compelling and offbeat anthology of literary journalism, including such writers as Mailer, Didion, Orwell and Hunter Thompson.
TRUMAN CAPOTE: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career By George Plimpton (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by William Georgiades
An oral memoir of the flamboyant writer, whose social life often seemed more compelling than his literary output.
(12/22/97)
Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine By Stephen Braun (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, reviewed by Michael Gerber
How do alcohol and caffeine scramble our brains, and why do we like it so much when they do? This book about the world's two most popular drugs seeks some answers.
One World, Ready or Not By William Greider (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Michael Gerber
Rolling Stone's political columnist delivers this jeremiad about the gloomy state of the international economy.
Angela's Ashes By Frank McCourt (Nonfiction)
Scribner, reviewed by John Glassie
An engrossing, flinty memoir, from a pub-crawling first-time writer, about his poverty-stricken life with his Irish family.
Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS and the Marketing of Gay America By Sarah Schulman (Nonfiction)
Duke University Press, Reviewed by Ted Gideonse This nervy book is partly an attack on the stage musical "Rent" and partly an analysis of how gay culture is homogenized for straight audiences.
(12/22/98)
Broke Heart Blues By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
The novelist explores the repercussions of a violent act in a town where life ends with high school.
(07/28/99)
Remote Feed By David Gilbert (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Short stories about sorority girls, Hollywood producers and overweight housewives, from a first-time writer.
(04/21/98)
Fat! So? By Marilyn Wann (Nonfiction)
Ten Speed Press, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
A cheerful pro-fat manifesto from a writer and zine editor who has become the Abbie Hoffman of obesity.
(01/05/99)
Venus Envy: A History of Cosmetic Surgery By Elizabeth Haiken (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
A meditation on America's changing attitudes toward the body, and on the medical technology of its radical transformation (11/21/97)
Speaking Truth to Power By Anita Hill (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's, reviewed by Michele Goldberg
A fascinating, if occasionally dry and wonkish, memoir by the woman made famous during the Clarence Thomas hearings.
Drawing Life By Phil Leggiere (Fiction)
Free Press, reviewed by Michele Goldberg
Part survival memoir and part cantankerous rant, this book tells how its author survived an attack by the Unabomber.
HOPE IN A JAR: The Making of America's Beauty Culture By Kathy Peiss (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Has America's beauty culture created new anxieties for women, the author asks, or has it prompted new freedoms?
(07/17/98)
Hungry By Joanna Torrey (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Michelle Goldberg
Short stories about young women and their appetites -- for sex, for food, for attention, for love
(03/19/98)
Hitler's Niece: A Novel By Ron Hansen(Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Nan Goldberg
A novel based on historical fact tells the story of the teenager the Führer loved.
(08/25/99)
Thumbsucker By Walter Kirn (Fiction)
Broadway Books, Reviewed by Adam Goodheart
A sworn enemy of novelistic pain relief takes a jittery poke at American kitsch and credulousness.
(11/02/99)
Werewolves in
Their Youth By Michael Chabon (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Adam Goodheart
By the author of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," a surprisingly Gothic new collection that's long on generosity and longer on charm
(02/22/99)
Horse Heaven By Jane Smiley (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Emily Gordon
A great big novel, jampacked with characters, that brings poetry to the dust and the lust of the racetrack. (04/17/00)
"You Are Worthless" and "The Pretty Good Jim's Journal Treasury"By Scott Dikkers (Humor)
Andrews McMeel Publishing, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
The editor of the Onion unleashes two collections of
anti-humor laced with cyanide.
(12/07/99)
Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright By Ann Blackman (Nonfiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
Gossipy yet searching, this biography of the current secretary of
state is the portrait of a talented shape-shifter who has led multiple lives
(12/10/98)
God of the Rodeo By Daniel Bergner (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Emily Gordon
Expanding on his eloquent Harper's magazine essay, the author offers a peak inside Louisiana's toughest state prison
(10/14/98)
"On Parole" by Akira Yoshimura By Emily Gordon
A bestselling Japanese novelist depicts the grim aftermath of a grisly crime. (03/09/00)
Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir By Smith Hempstone (Nonfiction)
University of the South Press, Reviewed by Lance Gould
This boisterous memoir, from the Bush administration's ambassador to Kenya, brims with offensive remarks about blacks, Jews, women -- you name it.
(08/06/98)
City of God By E.L. Doctorow (Fiction)
Random House, review by Julia Gracen
Harrowing stories of war and vengeance interwoven with a quest for enlightenment
(02/18/00)
Pereira Declares By Antonio Tabucchi (Fiction)
New Directions, reviewed by Trey Graham
In 1930s Lisbon, a melancholy widower who edits the cultural page of a third-rate newspaper undergoes a surprising political transformation.
A Monk Swimming By Malachy McCourt (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Lucy Grealy
From the brother of Frank ("Angela's Ashes"), himself a noted raconteur, a memoir of an Irish rogue's life in New York City
(05/21/98)
The Binding Chair By Kathryn Harrison (Nonfiction)
Random House, review by Laura Morgan Green
Is the author's latest abused-woman fantasy -- this one set in China and France in the early decades of the 20th century -- revelatory or pornographic? (05/01/00)
Paisley Girl by Fran Gordon (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by Laura Morgan Green
In an inventive and funny first novel, a terminally hip young heroine bears the blemishes of what may be a terminal disease.
(10/15/99)
Park City By Ann Beattie (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Laura Green
Welcome to Ann Beattie territory, where betrayal, loss and unsuccessful romantic negotiations are everywhere to be found
(06/23/98)
MY SISTER LIFE: The Story of My Sister's Disappearance By Maria Flook (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Laura Green
A detached memoir, from a young novelist, about her sister, who left home at age 14 and became a prostitute near a Navy base
(01/15/97)
Kaaterskill Falls By Allegra Goodman (Fiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Laura Green
From the author of "The Family Markowitz," a searching novel about an Orthodox Jewish community in an increasingly secular world
(07/31/98)
THE FOOTNOTE: A Curious History By Anthony Grafton (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, reviewed by Laura Green
An inquiry in the intellectual history of footnotes, from an academic who traces their development from the 16th through 19th centuries.
(12/15/97)
Pack of Two By Caroline Knapp (Nonfiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Laura Green
From the author of "Drinking: A Love Story," a memoir about how people can sometimes fail you, but dogs rarely do
(07/09/98)
A Patchwork Planet By Anne Tyler (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Laura Green
Another Baltimore story, from the author of "The Accidental Tourist", about a young man who breaks into houses simply to look around.
(04/23/98)
Black and Blue By Anna Quindlen (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Laura Green
A gripping domestic novel about a woman in flight from her past, and from her abusive husband
(02/10/98)
CLOSE TO THE BONE: Memoirs of Hurt, Rage and Desire Edited by Laurie Stone (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by Laura Green
A collection of autobiographical essays, bound together by the chasm between our desire for unconditional love and the unlikelihood of finding it.
The last time I wore a dress By Daphne Scholinski with Jane Meredith Adams (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Laura Green
The memoir of a tomboyish young woman who spent three years in psychiatric hospitals being treated for "Gender Identity Disorder."
ONE NATION, AFTER ALL: How the Middle Class Really Thinks About God, Country and Family By Alan Wolfe (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Laura Green
A sociology professor argues, after extensive polling, that Americans are nicer and have more in common than we'd ever imagined
(03/16/98)
Galileo's Daughter By Dava Sobel (Nonfiction)
Walker and Co., Reviewed by Casey Greenfield
The life of the heretical Italian scientist,
gleaned from the loving, protective letters of his illegitimate daughter.
(11/11/99)
Coal to Cream By Eugene Robinson (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, reviewed by Casey Greenfield
An African-American writer discovers a raceless society in Brazil -- or so it seems at first.
(08/27/99)
The Guilt of Nations By Elazar Barkan (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Co., review by Jonathan Groner
Are reparations the best way to address slavery, genocide and other past evils? (05/02/00)
Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America By Alison J.
Clarke (Nonfiction)
Smithsonian, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
A smart, fun history considers the influence of those indispensable
containers on the culture of the nation.
(11/10/99)
Personal Injuries By Scott Turow (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
Writing at the top of his game in a thriller about the corruption of the courts, the author delves deeper into character than he ever has before.
(10/05/99)
The Judge and the Historian By Carlo Ginzburg (Nonfiction)
Verso, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
Denouncing a miscarriage of justice, a historian compares Italy's courts to the Inquisition's.
(08/13/99)
Deliberate Intent By Rod Smolla (Nonfiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Jonathan Groner
Does the First Amendment protect a how-to manual for hit men?
(07/13/99)
Best American Spiritual Writing 1998 Edited by Philip Zaleski (Nonfiction)
HarperSanFrancisco, Reviewed by Michael Joseph Gross
An egocentric collection of essays -- from writers such as
Cynthia Ozick, Andre Dubus and Rick Moody -- on the nature of spiritual belief.
(12/08/98)
Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist By Richard Rhodes (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by JoAnn Gutin
An expert offers a sweeping (and unconvincing) theory of violence.
(09/28/99)
"Anglomania"" By Ian Buruma (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by JoAnn Gutin
Why, oh why, do we love the English so?
(04/27/99)
In the Presence of the Enemy By Elizabeth George (Fiction)
Bantam, reviewed by Cynthia Hacinli
The author brings back her familiar cast of London-based characters for another smart, literary crime novel.
The Rings of Saturn
By W.G. Sebald (Fiction)
New Directions, Reviewed by Joyce Hackett From the author of the critically acclaimed "The Emigrants," a novel that blends reportage, memoir, art criticism and images into a cohesive meditation on European history.
(12/23/98)
I Know This Much Is True By Wally Lamb (Fiction)
ReganBooks, Reviewed by Joyce Hackett
By the author of "She's Come Undone," a sprawling novel about twin brothers, and being a repressed (and angry) white American male.
(05/26/98)
The Bonehunters' Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest
Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age By David Rains Wallace (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Thomas Hackett
The fury of two
paleontologists tells us much about the temper of the late-19th century.
(11/04/99)
Boy in the Water By Stephen Dobyns (Fiction)
Metropolitan Books, Reviewed by Thomas Hackett
Naked teenagers, mutilated animals and a serial killer terrorize a guilt-ridden shrink at a boarding school.
(07/08/99)
Edisto Revisited By Padgett Powell (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Ed Hall
The sequel to Powell's acclaimed "Edisto," this quixotic novel about one man's search for identity (and a steady job) serves up a delicious
oxymoron: the Modern Southerner.
East of the Mountains By David Guterson (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company , Reviewed by Janice Harayda
The author of "Snow Falling on Cedars" confronts suicide.
(04/08/99)
Robert Penn Warren: A Biography
By Joseph Blotner (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of the eminently accomplished Southern writer that is itself eminently accomplished -- but also a little bit dry and remote.
The Enchantment of Lily Dahl By Siri Hustvedt (Fiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by Megan Harlan
In sinister small-town Minnesota, a voluptuous waitress falls for an older, sophisticated college professor and stalks a ghost.
The Kangaroo Notebook By Kobo Abe (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Megan Harlan
This surreal and playful novel by the late Nobel finalist is a fable about a man whose body begins playing strange tricks on him.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
By Kate Atkinson (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Dad's a philanderer, Mum's grouchy, sisters are befuddled -- but the young protagonist of this unusual first novel, set in the U.K., thrives anyway.
Becoming Modern By Carolyn Burke (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A life of the forgotten Modernist poet Mina Loy, a glamorous bohemian artist whose friends and admirers included Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp.
Desert Places
By Robyn Davidson (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Megan Harlan
The author, a well-known travel writer, recounts a difficult year spent with the Rabari, camel-raising nomads of northern India.
Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant By Mary V. Dearborn (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Megan Harlan
The fascinating and often tragic life of one of this century's most daring international journalists, too often remembered as merely the longtime companion of John Reed.
Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War By Barbara Ehrenreich (Nonfiction)
Metropolitan Books, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A short but probing look at the history of warfare, by the well-known Time magazine columnist.
Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored By Mary Gabriel (Nonfiction)
Algonquin, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president and the first to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm
(01/23/97)
The Last Integrationist By Jake Lamar (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Megan Harlan
From the author of the controversial memoir "Bourgeois Blues," this first novel, set in the near future, chronicles the struggles of the first
black United States Attorney General.
Final Vinyl Days By Jill McCorkle (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
Short stories about men and women, many of them set on the cusp of the CD revolution, from a talented Southern writer"
(06/08/98)
She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul By Lucy O'Brien (Nonfiction)
Penguin, reviewed by Megan Harlan
From female vaudeville acts to Courtney Love, this British music writer chronicles women in the pop pantheon -- as musicians and industry insiders, music engineers and disc jockeys.
Guided Tours of Hell By Francine Prose
(Fiction)
Metropolitan/Holt, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Trips to a Nazi concentration camp and Paris's Revolutionary Prison, that strip bare the inner lives of Prose's bewildered characters.
Sexplorations: Journeys to the Erogenous Frontier By Anka Radakovich (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A selection of the author's columns from Details magazine, on topics ranging from dominatrix schools to couples-only sex clubs.
Where I Stopped: Remembering Rape at Thirteen
By Martha Ramsey (Nonfiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Two decades after the author was raped by a stranger on a country road in New Jersey, she returned to uncover some stark emotional truths about her ordeal.
The Manikin By Joanna Scott (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A cerebral and fanciful meditation on love, death and taxidermy, from a writer who received a MacArthur "genius" grant at age 31.
Net Chick: A Smart-Girl Guide to the Wired World
By Carla Sinclair (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt/An Owl Book, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Loosen your bra straps:A female Net veteran has penned the ultimate grrrl's tour of the online scene.
Hearing Voices By A.N. Wilson (Fiction)
W.W. Norton, reviewed by Megan Harlan
The fourth novel in the author's noted "Lampitt Papers" series is part murder mystery, part religious dialogue and part exploration of the British
upper class.
"So I Am Glad" By A.L. Kennedy (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Elise Harris
Another wonderfully weird, sexy
tale by the author of "Original Bliss."
(01/20/00)
Naming the Jungle By Antoine Volodine (Fiction)
New Press, reviewed by Jordana Hart
In a fictional Latin American city set deep in the rainforest, a rebel feigns madness in order to avoid being tortured.
"The Walking Tour"By Kathryn Davis (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Virginia Heffernan
The pastoral collides with
cyberspace in a pulse-quickening novel that's totally confusing, but worth
the trip.
(12/02/99)
How the Body Prays By Peter Weltner (Fiction)
Graywolf Press, Reviewed by Ruth Henrich
A beautiful novel examines the toll that pride takes on a Southern family.
(08/19/99)
The Handyman By Carolyn See (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Ruth Henrich
In this L.A. novel, an unassuming handyman muddles his way to artistic genius while repairing the lives of lonely wives and other lost souls
(03/12/99)
"All Tomorrow's Parties" By William Gibson (Fiction)
G.P. Putnam's Sons, Reviewed by Frank Houston
In his newest novel, the cyberspace visionary stays one step ahead of the future.
(10/28/99)
SOTHEBY'S: The Inside Story By Peter Watson (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Jennifer Howard
From an intrepid British journalist, a peek inside the sometimes nefarious goings-on at the venerable auction house.
(02/26/98)
The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings By Wei Jingsheng (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Mark Hertsgaard
Fierce, earthy, crusading prison letters from a Chinese dissident who ranks with the 20th century's great freedom fighters.
Tuff By Paul Beatty (Fiction)
Random House, review by Hal Hinson
A comic novel about a 320-pound brother whose journey out of the 'hood includes sumo wrestling and a bizarre run for political office. (05/15/00)
"Sick Puppy" and "Kick Ass" By Carl Hiaasen (Fiction)
Knopf, review by Hal Hinson
In a new novel and a
new collection, the Florida author proves that he's as outrageous in
fiction as he is out there in fact.
(01/13/00)
King of the World: Muhammad Ali and The Rise of an American Hero By David Remnick (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
The new editor of The New Yorker presents a lucid account of how "a gangly kid from Louisville" became "a molder of his age."
(11/12/98)
The Baltimore Case By Daniel J. Kevles (Nonfiction)
Norton, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
An exhaustive account of the travails of Nobel Prize-winning scientist David Baltimore, who was falsely accused of fraud by a colleague
(09/11/98)
Lucky Bastard By Charles McCarry (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
In this fantastical and deeply entertaining novel, the bastard son of a JFK-type president explodes onto the political scene.
(07/16/98)
On Television By Pierre Bourdieu (Nonfiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
From a noted French intellectual and scholar, an examination of television's disastrous effects on society
(04/29/98)
The Rape of
Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II By Iris Chang (Nonfiction)
Penguin, Reviewed by Adam Hochschild
A young author documents the horrifying Japanese occupation of
Nanking in World War II, nearly forgotten by the West
(01/11/99)
The Kiss
By Kathryn Harrison (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
The incest memoir that the publishing world is buzzing about turns out to be a numbed and numbing affair.
Men Giving Money, Women Yelling By Alice Mattison (Fiction)
Morrow, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
A series of short stories about a petty criminal insinuating himself into the lives of New Haven teachers and social workers.
Cary Grant: A Class Apart By Graham McCann (Fiction)
Columbia University Press, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
This admiring biography describes how a working-class kid named Archie Leach remade himself into Hollywood's epitome of style.
The Practice of Writing By
David Lodge (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
Sane and gentlemanly literary essays, on his own work and others', from
the well-known British novelist ("Small World," "Nice Work").
The God of Small Things By Arundhati Roy (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
A rich, humid fairy tale of a novel, set in India, about forbidden, cross-caste love and a community's fierce protection of it's old ways.
Bear and His Daughter By Robert Stone (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
Booze hounds, dope heads, trippers and pill poppers populate these seven
stories about getting over (or giving into) substance abuse.
Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop and Some People By Danny Hoch (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hank Hyena
Tightly wound vignettes about rappers, dancers, prison guards and
other New Yorkers, adapted from this performance artist's high-octane solo
shows
(11/24/98)
"Music for Torching" By A.M. Homes (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, Reviewed by Courtney Hudak
Is A.M. Homes the master of shock or the mistress of schlock?
(05/05/99)
The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink By Mark Dery (Nonfiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by David Hudson
A cultural critic urges us to look, really look, at the horrors of
late-20th century American life.
(02/18/99)
Who's Irish? By Gish Jen (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Jamie James
In her first collection of stories, Chinese-American novelist Gish Jen turns stereotypes on their heads.
(06/04/99)
The Emigrants By W.G. Sebald
(Fiction)
New Directions, reviewed by Kurt Jensen
Jewish exiles in
Austria, England and America, experience the strange, melancholy beauty of
having had to give everything away.
Reflected Glory By Sally Bedell Smith (Nonfiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Kurt Jensen
An unauthorized and dishy biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman, the Washington socialite and current U.S. Ambassador to France.
Hair: Public, Political, Extremely Personal By Diane Simon (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, review by Maggie Jones
Part how-to manual, part cultural history -- what hair means and what the hell to do about yours. (05/10/00)
Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Nature of Smell By Lyall Watson< (Nonfiction)
W.W. Norton & Co., review by Maggie Jones
How we smell, why we smell and (best of all) what we smell: A guide to the most provocative, sensual and misunderstood of the senses. (03/31/00)
"Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter" By James S.
Hirsch (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Maggie Jones
A biography of the middleweight champ who was framed for murder
scouts out the pieces of the life the reporters missed.
(01/07/00)
The Last Life
By Claire Messud (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, Reviewed by Maggie Jones
A novel splendidly evokes the wounds of French-Algerian exiles.
(09/03/99)
Woman: An Intimate Geography By Natalie Angier (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Maggie Jones
A science writer finally provides the ammunition to turn biology into a feminist weapon.
(04/05/99)
The Hours By Michael Cunningham (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Georgia
Jones-Davis
From the author of "A Home at the End of the World," a searching
novel that reimagines Virginia Woolf's life and work.
(11/10/98)
The Mansion on the Hill
By Fred Goodman (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Cynthia Joyce
The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock Edited by Barbara O'Dair (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Cynthia Joyce
Essays on women's role in rock history, and on artists ranging from Tammy Wynette to Courtney Love (11/18/97)
Le Mariage By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, review by Elizabeth Judd
Yanks abroad and French nationals
still bewildering one another in a funny follow-up to the bestselling "Le
Divorce." (03/27/00)
"Roger Fishbite" By Emily Prager (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Emily Prager's brilliant parody of "Lolita" rockets the famous '50s nymphet into the '90s.
(04/14/99)
The Return Of
Little Big Man By Thomas Berger (Fiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
The novelist brings back one of his funniest creations, the con
artist Jack Crabb, who at 112 is as ornery and as slippery as ever
(03/05/99)
For Kings and Planets By Ethan Canin (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Canin's new novel is about a self-described "hayseed" who befriends
another, more glamorous, freshman at Columbia University.
(08/24/98)
Monkey Bridge By
Lan Cao (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This first novel, by a young Vietnamese-American writer, has juicy generational angst worthy of an Amy Tan novel.
Solibo Magnificent By Patrick Chamoiseau
(Fiction)
Pantheon Books, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the author of the acclaimed "Texaco," a philosophical novel
about the nature of language, and the nature of murder
(04/03/98)
Texaco By
Patrick Chamoiseau, translated from the French and Creole by Rose Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokurov (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Winner of France's Prix Goncourt, in 1992, this recently translated novel meshes French, Creole and Caribbean dialects to tell a fascinating tale of Martinique history in rich prose.
Cloud Chamber By
Michael Dorris (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A parade of colorful narrators tells the story of a mixed-race family in
this sequel to "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water."
Enduring Love By Ian McEwan (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A tense psychological thriller, from the author of "Black Dogs," about a balloon accident and its effect on a group of survivors
(02/20/98)
Flying Home and Other Stories
By Ralph Ellison
(Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Thirteen early short
stories about childhood, race and identity, by the author of "Invisible
Man."
The Antelope Wife By Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A sprawling novel about several generations in two Native American
families, from the author of "Love Medicine."
(04/14/98)
Bad Chemistry By Gary Krist (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the respected short-story writer, a thriller about the role that smart drugs may have played in a suburban murder
(01/20/97)
Virginia Woolf By Hermione Lee (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This absorbing biography tackles Woolf's dramatic life -- feminism, friendships, lovers, recurring bouts of madness -- and work.
As She Climbed across the Table By Jonathan Lethem
(Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This sly, inventive novel features a romantic triangle between a professor, a physicist and a hole in the universe.
The Gospel According to the Son By
Norman Mailer (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
From the author of "The Naked and the Dead," an attempt to tell the story of the Gospels from the point of view of Jesus.
Man Crazy By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A dazed young woman falls in with Enoch Skaggs, the poor man's Charles Manson, and a biker gang that practices human sacrifice.
My Heart Laid Bare By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Set in upstate New York late in the 19th century, the author's new
novel combines breathless prose with a sturdy examination of social mores
(06/26/98)
Anything We Love Can Be Saved By Alice Walker (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A grab-bag of essays and speeches by the activist writer, on such topics as dreadlocks, Fidel Castro and female genital mutilation.