There are novels that come with a backstory so complex and heartrending the book itself can be overwhelmed. Irène Némirovsky, was a Ukrainian Jew living in Paris with her husband and two young daughters. She was a successful author and had written the first two parts of Suite Française in Paris during the German occupation. In 1942 at age 39 she would be sent to her death ... Read More...
Age of Desire
There are two stories of love in Age of Desire. One is Edith Wharton’s affair with a young journalist and the other is the more enduring constant love between friends. In 1907, Wharton resides in Paris for the winter with her husband, Teddy, and assistant, Anna. Her marriage to Teddy is in name only: he is much older and they have nothing in common. As Edith describes herself ... Read More...
Gossip
I’m fairly certain that Tolstoy spent less time on War & Peace then I have spent trying to review Gossip. My problem is this: on the surface you have a cool-toned, witty look at three women living in the upper echelon of New York society. They are each interesting, diverse women, wearing fabulous clothes, and if that’s all you need from a book, then stop right here and go ... Read More...
Tigers in Red Weather
In Tigers in Red Weather It’s 1945 and in a small apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts cousins Nick and Helena prepare to celebrate the end of the war and the beginning of their lives. Helena is leaving to be with her new husband, Avery, an insurance salesman in Hollywood and Nick is heading to Florida to rejoin her husband, returning naval officer, Hughes. As the years pass ... Read More...
The Darlings
Typically by the time Sol was pitching an exit strategy, the client was already so far in the woods that they had lost sight of any ambient light long ago. Sol’s job was to lead them out of the darkness. Before becoming an author, Cristina Alger was an analyst at Goldman Sachs and an attorney. This is important because her pedigree means that her debut novel The ... Read More...
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
Was it The Rapture or not? This is the launch point for Tom Perrotta’s new novel The Leftovers and his take on the possibly apocryphal event is so well done it’s one more reminder to me that I’ll never be a novelist. This theme has been cartoonized by every fundamentalist/zombie writer in the world with heavy emphasis on the horror and suffering that such an event would ... Read More...
