Category: Reviewed by Michael

Zadie Smith is recognized as one of England’s premiere fiction writers.  Her first book, published in 2000, made an enormous splash and vaulted her to instant prominence.

White Teeth features a complex weave of fascinating characters, from multiple ethnic and racial backgrounds, reflecting modern-day England.  The story centers on two friends — Archie, a redheaded English person married to an Afro-Caribbean woman, and Samad, a Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh.  Their adventures are simultaneously funny and moving.  The storyline is entertaining, but the novel’s spice comes from the mosaic of peoples, cultures, and customs living in the same neighborhood, and the tensions and relationships that ensue.

I rarely laugh out-loud at a book, but I did with this one.  Give it a try.

Caleb Carr is a military historian turned novelist.  In The Alienist, he employs his specialty to paint a stark picture of the underside of New York City, circa 1896.

An “alienist” was the popular term used for people in the then-budding discipline of psychology.  Carr’s main character uses his skills to develop what we now call a “profile” to find a serial killer, stalking the male bordellos of lower Manhattan.

Carr populates his novel with prominent people from the history of  NYC in the late 19th century.  Central to the story is Theodore Roosevelt, in his role as Police Commissioner.  You’ll also meet folks like author Jacob Riis and J. P. Morgan.

This is a police procedural which uncovers the complex social history of NYC in an era of rapid social change via immigration, the rise of a super-wealthy class, and class conflict.  Carr also pushes the social envelop by making a woman police employee a central character.

For a strong taste of life in New York in this era, read The Alienist.

New Year’s Eve in London finds a desperate woman climbing the stairs of a tall building with the intention of throwing herself off.  Then, she finds three other people up there with the same intention.

Thus begins this quirky, dark -humored novel by British author Nick Hornby.  The four people talk themselves down, go for coffee, then decide to form a support society.  Each is completely different from the other – a disgraced TV personality, a punk young woman, a failed (American) rocker, and a middle-aged woman with a terribly disabled child.

It concludes relatively happily, as the four encourage one another to accept and conquer the challenges they each face.

Can the mundane details of everyday life be transformed into literary art?  This is Karle Ove Knausgaard’s accomplishment in his six-volume novel/memoir entitled My Struggle.

Four of the six books have been published in America, and we are joining a worldwide chorus of praise for this new literary star.

So what is Book 1 about?  As Jerry Seinfeld might say – it’s about nothing.  In blinding detail, Karl Ove takes us along on simple events in his life, bouncing from adulthood to childhood and back again.

Is it a novel or a memoir?  It’s a memoir with such great detail that he either has an encyclopedic memory, or he’s filling in his personal story with lots of fiction-like details.  This is not your typical novel by any stretch.

Somehow, his hyper-real style pulls us deep into his world, and…well, it’s difficult to get out.

I, for one, am hooked.