Book Reviews

Putatively a sequel to Less Than Zero, Ellis’s latest actually has nothing in common with his audacious debut except for the same setting and character names. Twenty-five years after the fictional birth of coked-out-of-his-mind teenager Clay, here he is again as a 43-year-old screenwriter, newly returned to LA after a years-long stint in New York. (Like its predecessor, Imperial Bedrooms takes place in a four-week span over the winter holidays.) But any other textual links are curiously absent. One would think that in 25 years, the characters, Clay included, would have lived lives and probably considered their tangled relations as teenagers and the questions left at Less Than Zero’s end.

Martin Amis’s latest novel opens with the blunt declaration: “This is the story of a sexual trauma.” Actually, The Pregnant Widow is the story of many a sexual trauma, as 20-year-old London student Keith Nearing’s libidinous plans are consistently foiled by a trio of wily young women. Set primarily during the summer of 1970 at a Tuscan castle, The Pregnant Widow is Amis’s surest fictional effort since 1995’s The Information, propelled by fresh, intriguing, downright fun prose. Too bad the sharp central narrative is dulled by asides to Keith’s post-1970 life, including a fairly preposterous coda that showcases the author’s well-known “Islamophobia.”

Writer Laura Munson had her big break last July when her essay, "Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear" appeared in the Modern Love column of the New York Times’ Sunday Style section. A magazine writer with more than a dozen unpublished novels under her belt, Munson explained how she dealt with her husband’s sudden pronouncement that he did not love her anymore, perhaps never did, and that he wanted to move out of their rural Montana home, rationalizing that their kids would want him to be happy.

Fans of How to Breathe Underwater (2003), Orringer’s acclaimed debut story collection, needn’t wait any longer for the author’s much anticipated and masterfully crafted first novel. A sprawling, page-turning love story and tale of brothers set against the backdrop of World War II, The Invisible Bridge will impress a larger, broader audience, so Orringer devotees, take note: this is a whole new ride. Steeped in research and grand at 600-pages (no wonder it’s been seven years in the making), the novel marks a clear departure from Orringer’s intimately knit stories of children, identity, and loss.

For all the love showered on Jane Austen through cinematic lovefests, academic treatises, and “I’d Rather Be Reading Jane Austen” bumper stickers, the author herself gets rather lost in the chatter. The sparse details of Austen’s biography and her brief catalogue of six novels permit today’s fans to imagine whatever they will of the British literary titan. Among the most common tropes about “Divine Jane?” That she was indifferent to fame, writing novels set squarely in the domestic sphere merely for the amusement of her intimates and neighbors.

When I picked up Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado, I noted the irony of the timing. Bullock-Prado's superstar sister Sandra Bullock had just won her first Academy Award. By the time I had finished the memoir, the actress's marital woes were splashed all over the blogosphere and celebrity rags.

But having just read her sister's memoir, including tales of their strong family upbringing and tight bond, I didn't worry for for Sandra. I knew that her sister would be by her side soon enough. A sister armed with a solid head on her shoulders and the uncanny ability to make sublime Opera Cake, Mandelhoernchen and Espresso Cheesecake.

At $2, the 1.5 hour bus ride from Quito up to the mountain town of Otvalo, Ecuador sounded like one of the world's best travel bargains.  The seats were comfortable enough. The bus was clean. But before the bus pulled out of the terminal, the driver turned on the trip's entertainment: Black Hawk Down (at top volume).  First, a slow crawl through Quito—the heavy smell of emissions made a fine companion to the movie—and, then, we raced up the mountain roads.  The bus driver swerved into the other lane to pass slower buses--those that were only going two times the speed limit.  I got off the bus a stop early, badly in need of the headache-fighting powers of a Coke.

The view from the top of life’s hill can be expansive yet daunting. While we can see where we came from, we also see the other side of the slope and it’s all downhill from here.

Dani Shapiro stands at the top of the hill with a lot on her mind. Has she been a good enough wife, daughter and mother? Is she Jewish enough? Has she practiced enough yoga? She is less interested in “Why are we here?” than in “What does it all mean for me?”

These aren’t the small questions, obviously, but they’re questions that we all face whether we confront them openly or hide from them. Shapiro decides to face them head-on as she adjusts to the view from the “afternoon” of her life in her memoir Devotion: A Memoir .

There is “Tudor frenzy” everywhere you look. From the 2009 Man Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall (a historical novel about Henry VIII’s secretary, Thomas Cromwell) to the hit Showtime series The Tudors starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry VIII is once again back in style. Books, movies, TV – the notorious king is everywhere, and not far behind is his infamous second wife, Anne Boleyn.