by Marilynne Robinson
CRITIC'S CHOICE
REVIEWED BY ADRIANA LESHKO
NOVEL
Most fulfilling when read as a companion piece to Gilead, the author's '04 meditation on life and faith, Robinson's latest focuses on the ailing Rev. Robert Boughton, best friend to Gilead's narrator, John Ames. A reimagining of the prodigal son parable, Home tracks the seismic emotional shifts that occur when Boughton's ne'er-do-well son Jack returns to Gilead, Iowa, in 1957, after a 20-year absence. Jack's sister Glory, witness to one of his worst youthful acts, is also back, nursing her own sorrows. The trio play out a wrenching saga of blame, forgiveness and redemption, not necessarily in that order. If Gilead lifted the heart, Home breaks it again and again, as if to remind the reader of the miraculous resilience of that most mysterious of organs.
by Sarah Lyall |
REVIEWED BY JUDITH NEWMAN
NON-FICTION
Lyall, a gleefully funny journalist who was stationed in London for the New York Times (and is married to an Englishman), explicates the Brits in all their class-bound, overly apologetic, alcohol-soaked glory. She is mistress of the telling detail, as when she describes the conflicts of the new wave of females in Parliament with the old public-school boys. (After a former girlfriend of Nicholas Soames, the portly MP, described making love to him as "having a large wardrobe fall on top of you, with the key sticking out," the female MPs would turn imaginary keys in their hands whenever he spoke.) Indeed, Lyall is particularly great at dissecting the freakiness of Brits at play. "Continental people have a sex life; the English have hot-water bottles," said one observer. But, in fact, the English are sexy precisely because sex is so fraught and scary to them. Lyall understands something about the American character too: What American woman when faced with an Englishman deeply uncomfortable in his own skin hasn't wanted to give him comfort?
by Philip Roth |
REVIEWED BY KYLE SMITH
NOVEL
It's the '50s, and Marcus Messner, furious with his overprotective dad, has transferred to a college out of state. Seems like the stuff of a routine first novel—which is part of Roth's trick. Marcus, we learn, didn't live to age 20; he is narrating from the beyond. The suspense about why he died is what gives the story its awful momentum, but the interplay between a life just begun and ended, impulse and reflection, college high jinks and eternity is what makes it resonate.
by Roland Merullo
REVIEWED BY MARTIN RUBIN
NOVEL
Think Sarah Palin's got charisma? Imagine if Jesus himself were on the ticket. Told in the voice of an initially skeptical TV journalist, this novel by the author of Golfing with God uses a blend of playfulness and genuine emotion to present a presidential contest like nothing seen before. Who will get the Christian vote? Will Jesus be the first Jewish President? By the time his story has unfolded, Merullo has made it seem quite believable that "based on hard returns and exit polling from the state of California ... Jesus Christ has been elected President of the United States." Artfully mixing recognizable characters and real-life situations with fantasy, Savior takes the reader on an enthralling wild ride.
by Kathleen Kent
REVIEWED BY THAILAN PHAM
FICTION
Set in the Puritan era, Kent's debut is based on her own heritage: She is a descendant of one of the first women to be hung as a witch in Salem. Kent tells Martha Carrier's story through the eyes of her 9-year-old daughter Sarah, whose voice has the rawness of a child matured too soon; she envisions her doomed mother "cleaving to the truth" until the end. Gripping and evocative, Heretic is a powerful tale of a perilous time.
THE ROUGH ROAD TO MANHOOD
• Little boys are struggling with one-fits-all rules in school; big guys waste years making up their own. Two new books address the perils of growing up male and offer help.
Part of letting boys be boys, says author Peg Tyre, is just saying yes to Captain Underpants.
[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]
Written in the form of a letter from an elderly minister to his young son, Robinson's bestselling Gilead won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2005.
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Brave, illuminating account of the secret Broyard learned on her father's deathbed: He was black.
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What's it like to have Asperger's syndrome? Augusten Burroughs' brother tells.
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Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
