DeWitt Henry and James Alan McPherson, Fathering Daughters: Reflections by Men, essays: This remarkable, moving collection offers nineteen essays on a subject about which very little has been published: the relationship between father and daughter. Henry and McPherson have broken new ground, soliciting stirring, often heartbreaking essays from the likes of Rick Bass, Phillip Lopate,…
Howard Norman, The Museum Guard, a novel: Norman’s third novel is an exquisite tale set in Halifax just before World War II. DeFoe Russett, orphaned at age eight, lives in a hotel and works as a museum guard with his uncle. DeFoe begins a tormenting affair with Imogen Linny, the caretaker of a small Jewish…
Derek Walcott, The Bounty, poems: The 1992 Nobel Prize winner lovingly evokes his native land, the island of St. Lucia, in this luminous new book. Haunting, magnificent, The Bounty gives us Walcott at the top of his form. (Noonday)
Russell Banks, Cloudsplitter, a novel: About one of the most controversial figures in American history, the abolitionist John Brown, Banks’s epic novel is narrated by Brown’s son and comrade, Owen. The novel not only traces Brown’s crusade against slavery, leading to his famous raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, but also becomes a deeply moving…
Mary Gordon, Spending, a novel: Gordon explores new territory with an indelibly vibrant, witty character, Monica Szabo, a fifty-year-old artist who decides to accept a handsome commodities trader as her patron. He gives her money, sex, and poses as a model. However, when her new series of paintings makes her rich, famous, and controversial, her…
Donald Hall, Without, poems: In his fourteenth collection, Hall writes with grief, grace, and courage about the poet Jane Kenyon, his late wife. The first half sketches her illness and death. The second half is comprised of verse letters he addresses to Kenyon in the ensuing year. This book stands as a poignant and powerful…
Fanny Howe, Nod, a novel, illustrated by Inger Johanne Grytting: Howe’s bravura new book defies category, presenting a fable in prose, verse, and woodcuts. About two Irish-German-American sisters in Dublin just as World War II is about to begin, the story’s subtext is far-reaching and mythic, as eighteen-year-old Irene falls for her mother’s ex-lover, separating…
James Alan McPherson, Crabcakes, a memoir: McPherson’s first new book since his 1978 story collection Elbow Room, which won the Pulitzer Prize, Crabcakes artfully describes his departure from his beloved Baltimore in the late seventies to Iowa City, where he continues to teach. The second half of the book recounts his recent trips to Japan,…
Gary Soto, Junior College, poems: Soto’s new collection is a touching and often hilarious account of his coming of age in Fresno, California, where he was a terrible student, graduating from high school with a D average, then attending Fresno City College with the “easiest of majors,” geography. As always, Soto’s memories of his Chicano…
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