The Chemistry of Tears – Peter Carey
Abundant with sumptuously detailed antiquities — Islamic water clocks, ancient Chinese timepieces, and of course the impossible mechanical duck.
With the Animals – Noëlle Revaz
Revaz makes it possible to feel a certain empathy for Paul, a pity for how small he has made his world and how tightly he needs to control it.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
The hypocrisy that’s so prevalent you almost only notice it when it’s absent.
I Am an Executioner: Love Stories – Rajesh Parameswaran
No creature, human or animal or alien, escapes the terrible consequences of falling in love.
Metawritings: Notes Toward a Theory of Nonfiction – Jill Talbot
It would be no surprise if, solely based on the book’s title, many would-be readers rolled their eyes uncontrollably.
Nostalgia is a fetish; in SOUND it’s a compulsion, a habit to be tamed.
The mélange of information is surprisingly coherent and unflaggingly intense.
PANOPTICON is ultimately a profoundly optimistic work, a leap of faith that chooses to revel in the opacity of language because — well, just because.
Most haunting of all is the prospect of losing one’s perceptive abilities.
Almost Never is like a comedy of manners cut with a pulpy erotic novel, a social satire impelled by a dripping lecherousness. Most of all, it’s a fantastic, exciting book.