Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
by Juliann Garey (Soho, $25)
One man’s bipolar disorder begins to feel like a universal human affliction in Juliann Garey’s debut novel, said Samantha Nelson in the A.V. Club. The protagonist, a deeply flawed Hollywood executive, may seem an unlikely everyman, especially after he leaves his family for a debauched world journey. But by navigating his highs and lows and the self-destruction they each bring, Garey “provides a visceral, sometimes hard-to-read look” at how vexed any quest for individual happiness can be.
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Inside Rehab
by Anne M. Fletcher (Viking, $28)
Anne Fletcher has written an “indispensable” corrective to public misperceptions about drug and alcohol rehab, said Laura Miller in Salon.com. Enrolling in a residential rehab program turns out to be among the least effective ways to beat addiction, and 12-step programs in general are known to be less than a one-size-fits-all solution. Fletcher’s “informed and judicious” study can’t be called compelling reading, but no one seeking an answer to addiction should ignore it.
Tiger Rag
by Nicholas Christopher (Dial, $26)
Not much is known about Buddy Bolden, the New Orleans cornetist often called the father of jazz, said Laura Eggertson in the Toronto Star. He left behind no known recordings before being institutionalized at 30 with what was probably schizophrenia. But novelist Nicholas Christopher has built an “engrossing” tale about lost cylinders recorded by Bolden that cuts between eras and features a “poignant picture of his descent from a popular local hero into a destitute and deranged outcast.”
When My Brother Was an Aztec
by Natalie Diaz (Copper Canyon, $16)
Poet Natalie Diaz copes with her brother’s meth addiction through metaphor, said Eric McHenry in The New York Times. He might dress as Judas or a skeleton, and Diaz responds to his unpredictability in kind, depicting him in her poetry as a moth, a magus, an Aztec. In this “uneven, beautiful” debut, Diaz’s brother is central to the portrait she creates of life on a Mojave reservation. She makes him a figure who “can’t be fixed in either sense: made better or fully apprehended.”
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Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
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Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
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The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
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Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
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Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
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Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
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You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
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Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”