77 is a novel of terror.
There are no breaks, no seasons, no episodes: just one unending cliffhanger, and all of us wondering whether or not we’ll die in a nuclear war before he leaves office.
Vian peppers this Elysium with small, threatening glimpses of the world in which they live and to which they remain oblivious.
Faces in the Crowd – Valeria Luiselli
Aspiring novelist, discerning critic, circular essayist, unabashed prose enthusiast — any one of a writer’s identities, his or her separate selves, has something to say about a great book. Perhaps that, right there, is what makes great books great: engaging all selves at once.
The Whole of Life – Jürg Laederach
Never before have I spent so long reading and re-reading a novel’s first page, trying to make sense of it. Already, I’d been tricked.
Lotería – Mario Alberto Zambrano
Fiction is never real, but good fiction is always true.
To Kramer’s credit, and to the reader’s dignity, there is no life because life itself is comprised of death, of disease, of a boy’s rotten teeth and a lover’s disintegrating body.
For all his supposed nihilism and self-proclaimed untaggability, Eliot’s story is archetypal.