Love and Obstacles
by Aleksandar Hemon
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The further Aleksandar Hemon gets from his Sarajevo youth, said Allen Barra in Salon.com, “the less vivid his vision seems to be.” The latest short-story collection from the Bosnian expat is “superb fiction”; its Hemon-like narrator gets off “some magnificent lines” while sharing tales from before and after his arrival in America. But Hemon’s characters “are becoming familiar.” We’ll have to wait and see whether the Chicagoan’s “tough-minded” fictional alter ego can find a second act in middle age.
Do Not Deny Me
by Jean Thompson
(Simon & Schuster, $14)
Jean Thompson is “an astute observer of the pitfalls of contemporary life,” said Connie Ogle in The Miami Herald. The 12 masterful stories in Do Not Deny Me highlight how today’s society “isolates and challenges, how it brings out one’s worst and best.” Though Thompson’s fiction is “not without humor,” it often features characters who have discovered that life is disappointing. We root for them to discover a useful truth: “Nobody will save us from sorrow, so we must save ourselves.”
Between the Assassinations
by Aravind Adiga
(Free Press, $32)
Aravind Adiga’s new collection creates a “far richer” portrait of India than did his Man Booker Prize–winning novel, The White Tiger, said Susan H. Greenberg in Newsweek. While the earlier book remains a greater work of literature, Between the Assassinations is a document of an entire society—young and old, rich and poor, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. In Adiga’s fictional town, people “fight, love, and struggle their way through overlapping stories.” It’s a “nimble” performance, from an author who remains “an insider with an outsider’s probing eye.”
The Thing Around Your Neck
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(Knopf, $32)
With this collection, the Nigerian-born author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun turns her attention to America for the first time, said Yiyun Li in the San Francisco Chronicle. Though she’s better with immigrant characters than their native-born counterparts, that hardly matters. Adichie’s people “don’t feel as if they were merely created; rather it is as if they were invited into the stories by the most understanding hostess.” She relates their experiences with more empathy than most authors could dream of.
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How will the new Repayment Assistance Plan for student loans work?the explainer The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) will replace existing income-driven repayment plans
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In the Spotlight Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been at odds with US forces
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Music reviews: Ethel Cain, Amaarae, and The Black KeysFeature "Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You," "Black Star," and "No Rain, No Flowers"
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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.”