Colson Whitehead’s Cool Machine, Michael Cunningham’s Unsayable, and Claire Vaye Watkins’s Yellow Pine all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
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Fiction — Novels
1. Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead
(Doubleday)
Fourteen rave reviews • three positive notes
“Whitehead delivers a dizzyingly brilliant demonstration of the breadth and depth of the author’s talents. The way he builds the heist and its planning shows meticulous research—he leans on numerous primary sources to anchor this fictional tale in real history. It stands as a contemporary masterpiece and a homage to New York, even as the city’s vermin scuttle beneath the surface.”
–Leigh Haber (The Los Angeles Times)
2. Dooneen by Keith Ridgway
(New Directions)
4 Rave • 2 Positive • 3 Mixed
“Reproducing ambivalence on the page in this way might be a risky and potentially alienating strategy for the reader. But it’s thrilling to watch Ridgway play with clarity and certainty; the linguistic energy and variety of the prose gives us plenty of sustenance to keep going as we clamber through the shadows. And there are laughs too … Lucid and affecting.”
–Michael Donkor (The Guardian)
3. The New People by Andrea Uptmor
(Little Brown and Company)
3 Rave • 2 Positive
“[A] bold and twisting plot … As impressive as Uptmor’s authorial daring with plot and characters is her rich setting, deploying all the details of life as we knew it in the year 2008 … Uptmor has pulled off quite a coup in a debut novel. In a word: sold.”
–Marion Winik (The Boston Globe)
4. Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins
(Riverhead)
Two Rave • Three Positive • One Pan
Read an interview with Claire Vaye Watkins here
“Yellow Pine thrives on a charged space: the title alludes to a problematic green-energy project and the protest encampment that forms in opposition. The tension between these forces shadows a couple navigating a midlife crossroads in this sharp, spirited novel … Watkins balances grace and wit as she populates a stark landscape with quirky figures wrestling with recovery, a society misaligned with humanity, ecological peril, and the oscillation of tourism-driven growth … You may not want to join their everyday struggle, yet you’ll value and relish their presence, and Watkins crafts a vivid portrayal of chosen families and steadfast women who still hold onto tender hearts.”
–Lauren LeBlanc (The Boston Globe)
5. The Mortons by Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld
(Pamela Dorman Books)
1 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“The book radiates inventive energy, dark humor and entertaining detours into topics like art, avant-garde fashion and cocktail culture … At times the tapestry of details feels a bit heavy for the pace, and the rules aren’t always consistent … Whether The Mortons suits you may hinge on your tolerance for violence … Still, the authors offer Jessica a clear path toward redemption (and perhaps the promise of a sequel) at the close. I’d be curious to see what she does next.”
–Sarah Lyall (The New York Times Book Review)
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Nonfiction
=1. The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory by Emily Eakin
(Penguin)
Three rave reviews • one positive
“…an exquisite blend of gossip, memoir, and philosophy, weaving complex ideas into accessible prose, alongside a chronicle of human folly. And even as she grows skeptical of theory, Eakin persuasively argues that what once appeared to be the most arcane scholarly pursuit has nonetheless shaped American culture in meaningful ways.”
–Laura Miller (Slate)
=1. Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America by Kim Phillips-Fein
(W.W. Norton and Company)
Three rave reviews • one positive
“Impeccably shaped … She keeps Country of Lords lean and supple, letting her characters and anecdotes shine through. Phillips-Fein writes with poise and deft thinking; the opening paragraph ensnares you and holds you until the final page. Though the book is compact at roughly 200 pages, its thesis carries enormous implications for the future of the nation-state.”
–Hamilton Cain (On the Seawall)
3. Unsayable: A Life in Writing by Michael Cunningham
(Random House)
2 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan
“Beautiful … An essential guide for writers, and a moving experience for anyone who loves to read.”
–Peter Thornell (Library Journal)
4. Dad, Love, Me by Matthew Quick
(Avid Reader Press)
1 Rave • 3 Positive
“What begins as a probing look at childhood wounds gradually becomes something rarer and more enlightening: an account of how forgiveness arrives only after the parent who most needs it begins losing the capacity to grasp it… The epistolary approach is naturally delicate, though it mostly avoids sentimentality, even if a few moments threaten that line.”
–Tas Tobey (The New York Times Book Review)
5. Carousel: An Essay on Seeing by Sarah Minor
(Yale University Press)
2 Rave • 1 Positive
“Sarah Minor proves to be a consummate craftsman… She excels at making form and meaning feed off one another; in her work, the medium essentially embodies the message, so the physical shape of the piece becomes its core topic.”
–Melissa Holbrook Pierson (The Brooklyn Rail)
