Review

Anything Goes by Madison Smartt Bell

Madison Smartt Bell, Anything Goes, a novel: Showing stunning versatility in his thirteenth book, Bell follows a twenty-year-old bass player, Jesse Melungeon, over the course of a year as he traverses the South with his bar band. (Pantheon)

My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum

Dan Wakefield recommends My Misspent Youth, essays by Meghan Daum: “A first book of Didion-like essays on contemporary life, with wit and insight and graceful prose.” (Open City)

rev. of How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

How to Breathe Underwater, stories by Julie Orringer: The three stories that open this debut collection are pure gems, rollicking along with scintillating prose and surety. Just when you think they will stop—and lesser writers would stop—they keep going with inexorable momentum. Almost all of the stories involve youths imperiled—by accidents, illness, fate, and, most…

Two Lives in 1950s New York by Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan

Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan, Two Lives in 1950s New York, a memoir: In alternating chapters, Bernays and Kaplan charmingly recount their youth, courtship, and new careers in publishing and writing in Manhattan during the fifties. (Morrow)

So Ask: Essays, Conversations, and Interviews by Philip Levine

Philip Levine, So Ask: Essays, Conversations, and Interviews: With his trademark humor and down-to-earth intelligence, Levine mixes memoir and criticism, reflecting on his working-class Detroit roots, his apprenticeship with John Berryman, his years teaching, and other stages in his formation as a poet. (Michigan)

rev. of Thieves’ Latin by Peter Jay Shippy

Thieves’ Latin, poems by Peter Jay Shippy: This prize-winning first collection provides proof that, as Peter Jay Shippy writes, "writ happens"—and that sometimes it is wonderful "writ." With a gift for breathtakingly original language, he leads us through the vast orchard of his imagination, where we can pluck and taste its astonishing fruit. Thieves’ Latin,…

Never by Jorie Graham

Jorie Graham, Never, poems: Graham undertakes a dazzling exploration of time in the twenty-seven lyrics of her ninth collection-time as it exists in nature, history, evolution, consciousness, human interaction, and belief. (Ecco)

Moy Sand and Gravel by Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon, Moy Sand and Gravel, poems: In his ninth collection, Muldoon works a rich vein that bridges the County Armagh of his youth with suburban New Jersey, where he now lives and teaches. Both whimsical and elegiac, these poems play with form and language with winning mastery. (FSG)

rev. of Built in a Day by Steven Rinehart

Built in a Day, a novel by Steven Rinehart: The hero of this ambitious and smart debut novel, following on the heels of the story collection Kick in the Head, is a deceptively dangerous thirty-something dropout who is not above sleeping with his dead wife’s dead son’s teenaged girlfriend. Ultimately, this relentlessly entertaining story demonstrates…