Why Not Say What Happened?
by Ivana Lowell
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The Box
by Günter Grass
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $23)
Part fiction and part memoir, The Box is an attempt by Günter Grass to discover the minds of his eight children, said Amelia Atlas in BarnesandNobleReview.com. The Nobel laureate frames his narrative around a series of recorded conversations at the family dinner table, but “it’s impossible to tell where Grass’ memory ends and fantasy begins.” The Box offers some intriguing insights on family dynamics, but, like most of Grass’ books, it ends up being mostly about its author.
Missing Lucile
by Suzanne Berne
(Algonquin, $24)
This new memoir from novelist Suzanne Berne is an attempt “to lay a ghost to rest,” said Julie Myerson in The New York Times. Hearing her father tell the story of losing his mother to cancer when he was a boy, Berne becomes convinced that her grandmother’s absence is “the Rosetta stone by which all subsequent family guilt and unhappiness could be decoded.” With “gusto and sensitivity,” she has filled in many biographical details about the woman, yet her speculations can grow tiresome.
A Secret Gift
by Ted Gup
(Penguin, $26)
This riveting nonfiction story is “very much about family secrets,” said Tom Perrotta in The Wall Street Journal. During the Great Depression, the author’s grandfather put an ad in a newspaper promising to “send Christmas cheer in the form of $5 checks to those he determined the neediest.” Gup, a former investigative journalist, tracks down the relatives of the 150 recipients of the holiday checks and learns more about his grandfather than he imagined he could.
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Weapons: Julia Garner stars in 'hyper-eerie' psychological thrillerThe Week Recommends Zach Cregger's 'top notch' new film opens with 17 children disappearing at exactly the same time
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Freakier Friday: Lohan and Curtis reunite for 'uneven' but 'endearing' sequelThe Week Recommends Mother-and-daughter comedy returns with four characters switching bodies
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Al fresco art: the UK's best sculpture parksThe Week Recommends Soak up the scenery with a stroll through these open-air galleries
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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.”