Searching for comparisons, I came up with War and Peace. I know that comparing a contemporary author to Tolstoy sounds silly. But there is something of the same commitment to telling the story of a people while also making the academic word “humanities” count for something. Orringer applies acid to the plate of her character’s lives.
Joseph O’Neill came to me with the ultimate seal of approval, one long essay by Zadie Smith that appears in Changing My Mind. There is nothing wrong with the prose here, the narrative structure is firm, and the hero, Hans, a Dutch born Englishman is severely arrogant, wealthy and unaccustomed to any kind of turbulence in his own life. In defense of the author, it must be said that the book is a recipe for post 9-11 fiction. It offers the city in all its splendid glory, or former glory, after that awful day.
As the story unfolds, the characters are drawn to their extremes – mental breakdowns, rage, depression – but Ammaniti’s pace is relentless. He does a great trick with contrasting friends Rino and Quattro Formaggi – making one vile and the other pitiable at the beginning and spectacularly turning the tables. He’s good at creating empathy for his characters, and handles each player’s narrative cleanly, showing the multidimensionality of the people.
Over the last hundred years, millions of fully necessary murders brought—at long last—our daily misery to an end, blessed by worldwide accord. Only a few objected, and they were easy to discount. Now, joy never ceases. Every government treasures its citizens like sons. The twenty-first century has come already to resemble, even in the eyes of an amateur, the twentieth in its fullness of peace and glory. And you haunted, Clio, Dalmatia’s shoreline all last fall, amid karst, pine, resinous clearness. Heavy masses of lavender, a plant native to that coast, cleansed a fleeing breeze.
I’ve always been fascinated by American extremist movements—especially The Weather Underground. Imagining something like that occurring today—an organized group of middle- and upper-middle class students (most of them liberal arts kids or Ivy Leaguers) using violent means in an attempt to stir revolt, and end a misguided war—might be hard to do. But that’s exactly the problem.
If you’ve paid attention this week, you’ve noticed that we like Sam Munson. We hope you will too, so here’s an opportunity: In the comments section, name your favorite adolescent protagonist, and tell us why, and get a chance to win one of five copies of SM’s new novel The November Criminals.
Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich
When We Fell In Love – Helen Sedwick
When We Fell In Love – Helen Sedwick
The Delivery Cut Download
Our Frail Blood by Peter Nathaniel Malae