Cost
by Roxana Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25)
Roxana Robinson’s “scarily good” new novel creeps into corners of family life that most of us are “terrified to approach,” said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. When three generations of a small clan receive word that one of their own is spiraling into heroin addiction, a vacation in Maine turns into a “faltering, panicked” intervention. The myriad anxieties conjured by Robinson make Cost hard to cozy up with but “impossible” to put down.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
House of Wits
by Paul Fisher (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30)
However much has been written about the James household that produced novelist Henry, philosopher William, and diarist Alice, said Hermione Lee in The New York Times, readers could use a contemporary update. Unfortunately, author Paul Fisher approaches the project with “a thoroughly infantilizing agenda.” No matter what the siblings accomplish, he portrays them as products of childhood rivalries and worries.
The Condition
by Jennifer Haigh (Harper, $26)
In Jennifer Haigh’s “rich, enjoyable” third novel, a family of five begins to unravel when the only daughter is diagnosed with a disorder that will trap her in the body of a child, said Kim Hubbard in People. Splitting the narrative five ways, the award-winning Haigh “sets many balls in motion and drops one now and then.” But each of her characters “evolves believably and satisfyingly” because none evolves predictably.
The Sister
by Poppy Adams (Knopf, $24)
It’s a “daring move” for a debut novelist to tell a story entirely from the point of view of a spinster recluse, said Charity Vogel in The Buffalo News. Twists abound, though, when the narrator takes her sister in after a five-decade separation, and we discover that these women “have a foul history between them, built of deception and pain.”
Apples and Oranges
by Marie Brenner (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24)
Vanity Fair’s Marie Brenner “is a tougher-minded memoirist than most,” said Jennie Yabroff in Newsweek. That’s important, because this account of a last-ditch attempt to connect with a dying, irascible brother is more about her than him. Brenner doesn’t pretend that the siblings’ struggle to “see each other for who they are” is ever fully resolved.
-
Every MCU movie since 'Avengers: Endgame,' rankedThe Week Recommends How did the recent 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' stack up?
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Court says labor board's structure unconstitutionalSpeed Read The ruling has broad implications for labor rights enforcement in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi
-
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
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
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.
-
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.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
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.”
-
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.”