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The Thing Itself: On the Search for Authenticity, by Richard Todd (Riverhead): Along with his witty and astute social commentary on objects, places, politics, words, and ideas, all of which serve to foreground his sensibility, Richard Todd offers us fragmentary revelations of his personal life. Gradually these revelations deepen into a fully realized, brave, and…
Margot Livesey, The House on Fortune Street, a novel: This absorbing novel opens multiple perspectives on the life of Dara MacLeod, a young London therapist, partly by paying subtle homage to literary figures and works. (Harper)
Maxine Kumin recommends Morning in Serra Mattu, an ode by Arif Gamal: ” Morning in Serra Mattu: A Nubian Ode is actually an oral recitation of life in the Sudan from the 1940’s to the building of the Aswan Dam, as told to E. G. Dubovsky, who recorded it in meter. It is rich with…
The Art of the Poetic Line, criticism by James Longenbach (Graywolf): James Longenbach’s The Art of the Poetic Line is a very legible book that manages to pack much wisdom and complexity into a relatively small space—which is, of course, what we expect from the best poetry itself. A poet achieves such condensation by making…
Thomas Lux, God Particles, poems: A satiric edge cuts through many of the poems in this new collection, with unexpected moments of grace instilling even the darkest moments with surprising sweetness. (Houghton Mifflin)
Philip Levine recommends Astoria, poems by Malena Mörling: “In a poem by Malena Mörling the reader is taken on trips never bargained for: time may be compressed, action go in reverse; in the blink of a line you can move from Grand Central Station to a design on wallpaper, and yet when you finish the…
Bang Crunch, stories by Neil Smith (Vintage): Most literary trends produce both brilliant and unfortunate incarnations, and the "quirky fiction" school is no exception. The less successful manifestations of this trend toward off-kilter fictional realities seem to embrace weirdness for the sake of weirdness, to privilege style over substance, while the more memorable works…
Campbell McGrath, Seven Notebooks, poems: These seven poetic sequences examine—in forms ranging from haiku to prose, and in a voice veering from incantatory to deadpan—the world as it is seen, known, imagined, and dreamed. (Ecco)
Rita Dove, American Smooth, poems: The poems in Dove’s gorgeous eighth collection move through history, music, war, and motherhood in an ever graceful choreography. (Norton)
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