Review

Mistah Kurtz! – James Reich; Men – Marie Darrieussecq

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There are so many holes, enigmas, untold stories, and railroaded-potential-narrators left to potentially attend to in H of D, and to my mind, none are Kurtz.

Rem Koolhaas and Hal Foster – Junkspace/Running Room

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Junkspace appears to be a concept, but it’s not, really; it’s more a slogan, one meant to umbrella over every bit of architecture.

Things That Can and Cannot Be Said – Arundhati Roy and John Cusack

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In THINGS THAT CAN AND CANNOT BE SAID, traveling to see Snowden is a little like waiting for Godot. The non-event clears the way for an empty contemplative space.

Charlotte Wood – The Natural Way of Things

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To some, THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS, as an allegorical novel, might seem a bit on the nose in terms of how it tackles misogyny, particularly slut-shaming.

Clothed, Female Figure – Kirstin Allio

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Class, as much as gender, impacts the way Allio’s characters experience the world.

Restless Continent – Aja Couchois Duncan

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The speaker, a person split between Ojibwe and European lineages, is uninterested in narratives that paint the colonization of the North American continent as a sentimental tale of innocence lost and civilization found. How would the earth remember?

Inherited Disorders – Adam Ehrlich Sachs

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An inheritance, then, is just another way by which fathers and sons disappoint and misunderstand each other.

The Young Bride – Alessandro Baricco

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This novel is a captivating, fable-like story about a family that lives each day the same as the last in order to suspend the passage of time. It is a quirky, beautiful, and warmly humorous reflection on how the fear of our own mortality affects the way that we live our lives.

Three New Story Collections, Five Ways

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Mainly I want you to finish the review thinking things like, Hm, maybe I should read that book, or Maybe I won’t read it, but at least I have a clear sense of it! (And, most important of all, Wow, that guy knows a lot about the New York Mets!)

Mischling – Affinity Konar

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What really saves MISCHLING is Konar’s astonishing lyricism. Against Adorno’s statement, here there is poetry in everything.