Lives of the Novelists
by John Sutherland (Yale, $40)
If promising “a history of fiction in 294 lives” seems foolhardy, it is, said Allan Massie in The Wall Street Journal. This book doesn’t live up to its subtitle, but British professor John Sutherland has created an engaging read by using his own idiosyncratic tastes as a guide. Scores of writers spotlighted here are “usually excluded from the literary pantheon.” And what of those who didn’t make the cut? Harriet Beecher Stowe, Willa Cather, P.G. Wodehouse, and others make up “quite a salon des rejetés.”
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When I Was a Child I Read Books
by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24)
Marilynne Robinson often seems “like an intellectual who wandered into the 21st century from another time,” said Maggie Galehouse in the Houston Chronicle. The Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist believes deeply in the sacred yet “assumes nothing and questions everything.” This essay collection is predictably rigorous and thought-provoking. But you might need to share Robinson’s deep familiarity with Calvin, Walt Whitman, and the Bible to fully experience its “collective punch.”
Reading for My Life
by John Leonard (Viking, $35)
John Leonard, who died in 2008, was one of “the last and the best” of a dying breed—the lifelong book critic, said Phillip Lopate in The New York Times. “Rescued from the dust of past periodicals,” the writings collected here demonstrate how Leonard’s early love of books and “hunger for transcendent literary sorcery” led to a career of eruditely championing the likes of Vladimir Nabokov and Toni Morrison. This “cheerful investigator” of literature’s myriad byways clearly possessed “a touch of the poet.”
Life Sentences
by William Gass (Knopf, $29)
William Gass’s latest “makes a major contribution to the understanding and appreciation of great writing,” said Chris Hartman in CSMonitor.com. In these exquisite essays, the octogenarian author lays out his literary judgments with passion and, in some cases, ire. “In Gass’s pantheon”—which includes Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and Friedrich Nietzsche—“great writers are highly perceptive observers of the human condition, though their faults are often as outstanding as their literary accomplishments.”
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Why the world is going mad about Taylor Swift's weddingThe pop star unveiled diamond ring in cosy snaps with fiancé Travis Kelce earlier this week
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Hostage: Netflix's 'fun, fast and brash potboiler'The Week Recommends Suranne Jones is 'relentlessly defiant' as prime minister Abigail Dalton
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France political crisis: what does Bayrou's gamble mean for Macron?The French president could see his authority damaged beyond repair should another of his governments fail
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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.”