John Kenney's debut novel, Truth in Advertising, won the 2014 Thurber Prize for American Humor and his Love Poems for Married People was a national best-seller. In his new novel, I See You've Called in Dead, a newspaper hack accidentally publishes his own obituary.
'Someone' by Alice McDermott (2013)
'Underworld' by Don DeLillo (1997)
A sweeping, majestic book—the history of the second half of the 20th century told through a remarkable cast of characters. Moments and sentences that stop you dead, grab hold of you. The "Angel Esmeralda" chapter is one of the greatest pieces of writing I've ever encountered. Buy it here.
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'The Night Manager' by John le Carré (1993)
I'm not a fan of labels, of categories. Le Carré is sometimes called a spy novelist. Rubbish. He's a novelist of the first order. His protagonist here is Jonathan Pine, trying to infiltrate the life of "the worst man in the world," an international arms dealer. Like all of le Carré's work, this is a morality play on a global stage. Buy it here.
'Franny and Zooey' by J.D. Salinger (1961)
The Glass family breaks my heart. I want to be friends with them, and I feel like I am in some way. In the scene where lovely, confused, too-smart Franny sits at lunch with her overconfident, insecure date, her too-quick wit, her college-aged anxiety, is just remarkable. Buy it here.
'A Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
I've read this book maybe four times and still don't understand quite how the author conjures the character of Ignatius J. Reilly, his warped and wonderful mind, his hilarious utterances, his mother, and his ex-girlfriend, Myrna. Yes, it is riotously funny. But how strange and wonderous to find yourself laughing through tears at the end. Buy it here.
'Who Is Rich?' by Matthew Klam (2017)
Klam is the rare writer who makes me laugh out loud. Who Is Rich? follows a middle-aged cartoonist whose early career success is a distant memory. It's a portrait of an artist in pain and crisis. Klam is a superb writer, sentence-for-sentence wonderful. Buy it here.
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Democrats push for ICE accountabilityFeature U.S. citizens shot and violently detained by immigration agents testify at Capitol Hill hearing
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The price of sporting gloryFeature The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off this week. Will Italy regret playing host?
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Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?Feature Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is Trump's de facto ‘voter fraud’ czar
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6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
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Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
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Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
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American Psycho: a ‘hypnotic’ adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis classicThe Week Recommends Rupert Goold’s musical has ‘demonic razzle dazzle’ in spades
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Properties of the week: houses near spectacular coastal walksThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, Devon and Northumberland
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Melania: an ‘ice-cold’ documentaryTalking Point The film has played to largely empty cinemas, but it does have one fan
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Nouvelle Vague: ‘a film of great passion’The Week Recommends Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave
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Wonder Man: a ‘rare morsel of actual substance’ in the Marvel UniverseThe Week Recommends A Marvel series that hasn’t much to do with superheroes
