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 February 22, 2008Books Update |
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On the Cover of the Sunday Book Review Steven Millhauser doesn’t traffic in emotional upheaval or interpersonal conflict. He flattens his characters, giving his books the paradoxical effect of seeming realer than reality. Book News & More Reviews »ADVERTISEMENT  Also in This Week's Book Review In Jerome Charyn’s 18th-century New York, George Washington mingles with prostitutes, swindlers, spies and other riffraff. An unfinished novel by Richard Wright concerns a police officer who suspects his son may be a killer.  Roberto Bolaño’s “encyclopedia” traces the lives of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers. James Collins’s first novel concerns a love affair and a marriage.  A “maddeningly alive” father, his tormented son and one highly unusual meditation on mortality. A biography follows David Mamet beyond his fierce early works.  A father and son write books about the son’s addiction and the father’s obsession with it. Did scholars and collectors define our image of Delta blues?  As the subcontinent boils, the heroine of Manil Suri’s novel finds refuge in an obsessive love for her son. John Burnham Schwartz’s novel is narrated by an unhappy Japanese empress.  The silences in Robert Creeley’s poems are as important as what is written down. The characters in Cate Kennedy’s first story collection are mired in trouble.  Nathaniel Mackey’s latest novel, like the music it so passionately evokes, is dedicated to the primacy of the moment. Some topics have proved too vexing for George Steiner to tackle in books, as he explains in this essay collection. Starting from a slender legend, a historian recreates the story of a free black couple in antebellum New England. Visuals Reviews of new visual books about the Mad magazine cartoonist Basil Wolverton; Hergé, the creator of Tintin; Times Square; and art deco in Havana. | Books FeaturesEssay Upton Sinclair, whose novel “Oil!” inspired “There Will Be Blood,” never achieved a big movie strike. Crime If one of the victims in Peter Robinson’s novel was an “interesting killer,” what does that make her assassin? Also reviewed: novels by Jacqueline Winspear, April Smith and Jonathan Barnes. In the News James Patterson's books for young adults have sold millions of copies, but he wants to sell more. A lot more. New in StoresBooks of The TimesIf Benazir Bhutto’s own life reads like a Greek tragedy, she was nonetheless a very modern politician, and the book she wrote is part manifesto, part spin job, part selective history and part term-paper analysis. Best Sellers
Web FeaturesRecently in the Book Review's blog: questions for Sean Wilsey; men in chadors; dating Ayn Rand; a playlist by Darin Strauss. Our discussion of “August: Osage County” continues — with Marsha Norman, Eliza Minot and The Times’s Frank Rich. This week: James Collins, author of “Beginner’s Greek”; the novelist Anne Enright; Stacey D’Erasmo on Roberto Bolaño; and Dwight Garner with best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host. Editor's NoteThanks for taking the time to read this e-mail. Feel free to send feedback; I enjoy hearing your opinions and will do my best to respond.Blake Wilson Books Producer The New York Times on the Web |
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