THEATRE OF FISH by John Gimlette

Reviewed by Ari Glogower

Newfoundland, again? Haven’t we heard enough about that God-forsaken rock? Hold that yawn because this isn’t your mother’s book about Newfoundland. John Gimlette’s new travelogue forgoes the pat National Geographic formulations of a rugged people wresting survival from a harsh landscape. Perhaps most startling, it’s not really about fish at all.

Gimlette’s Newfoundland is a stage, a backdrop for successive waves of humanity living out their comedies and tragedies amidst the rock and cod. His Newfoundlanders exude histrionics at every turn. On the boisterous streets of St. John’s, where “drama .. tumbled out of people” taxi drivers soliloquize and bank tellers spin tales of giant dogs and mountainous snowdrifts. In the remote northern outports a fallen opera star once applauded on Europe’s greatest stages makes her way along the harbor. Dressed to the nines in pearls and silk she rides into town on a sledge pulled by her only remaining fan, a pet goat. (more…)

MISSION TO AMERICA by Walter Kirn

Reviewed by Ari Glogower

Walter Kirn’s latest work “Mission To America” ranges far and goes nowhere. This book, a protean mass of ill conceived images and half-baked humor leaves the reader aching for some tight, neat purposeful prose. The story line follows the adventures of two young men from a reclusive religious community tucked into a Montanan bluff. Their mission, to find new female converts to diversify the community’s inbred gene pool, results in many not-hilarious encounters with modernity and produces trite insights into overplayed themes of gender, commercialism and the like.

Kirn’s problem is not a lack of creativity, and he peppers each page with bizarre details and inventive asides. His description of the community, a new-age theocracy populated by Whole Foods brand reps, encompasses a colorful array of habits and beliefs. The reader meets the deity Lady Vegetalis and an economy based on the exchange of virtue coupons. The reader learns that once, during the spring moon of Snake Emergence the group’s leader Aunt Patricia – with a little help from Lom-Bard-Ok-Thon - halted an epidemic racing through the slums of northern Peru. And so on. (more…)

WALDEN by Michael Dolan

Reviewed by Toni Merriss

For many young adults, college is their first experience of truly being on their own. It can be a confusing time, full of doubts and a true sense of finding ones self.
In Michael Dolan’s first novel, Walden, the main character, Walden Walden XVI, has lived in the shadows of his entire family for as long as he can remember. Attending the same university that Waldens have for centuries does not help young Walden much in his journey to establish his individuality.

If there was ever a story of a predetermined path with no thought of how the actual person would respond, this is it. (more…)

DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER by Jeff Lindsay

Reviewed by Rebeckah Groves

Darkly Dreaming Dexter: A Daring Delve into Devilish Deeds

[Note: This review contains heavy alliteration. Not for the faint of heart. –Ed.]

Despite doubts that I had as to the decency of a drama dedicated to despicable dealings, Darkly Dreaming Dexter denied me the delight of dealing disparaging remarks to the book and deeming it dross. Instead, Dexter deftly demonstrates the destiny of the drama devoted to the decidedly devious: delectable, when done daringly. (more…)

THE PAINTED VEIL by W. Somerset Maugham

Reviewed by Andrew Seal

When I picked up a copy of The Painted Veil to review, I asked a friend of mine what she thought of W. Somerset Maugham.

“He’s a very one book sort of man, I think,” she said. “There’s Of Human Bondage, and then, well, what is there?”

I suppose this attitude isn’t atypical, at least among the current arbiters of the literary canon and among those English-major acolytes (like my friend and I) who pay attention to ponderous old fools like the Modern Library and whatnot.

I am, however, glad to say that Maugham is not a one book man and, upon further reading, may not even be a two book man. Of Human Bondage is an undeniable masterpiece, but The Painted Veil is a fine book as well. (more…)

A SIMPLE PLAN by Scott Smith

Reviewed by Melissa Fish

When I first began Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan, I had every expectation that the plot would follow the established pattern for suspense novels: a fast-paced, guilt-free story full of sympathetic characters seeking to triumph over external evils in a world of black-and-white morality. However, I quickly discovered that, even at the root of its premise, the novel defies all “suspense” novel standards, to the point of being almost completely separate from the genre. (more…)

TROUBLE by Patrick Somerville

Reviewed by Mark Woollams

Trouble is Patrick Somerville’s first novel and on its pages the modern man stands awkwardly on display. Trouble is a complicated case study on the male perspective, it is one that is never seen on any television channel, read in any magazine or heard on any album. Instead, Somerville is real. Free of the false pretenses which seem to pervade the other, off base, perspectives, Somerville is “right on” in so many of these stories. (more…)

A GOOD YEAR by Peter Mayle

Reviewed by Heidi Immesberger

Peter Mayle’s A Good Year follows several months in the life of Max Skinner. After losing his job in London, Max serendipitously receives notice that he has inherited his uncle’s house in Provence, including a vineyard. Max travels to France to take over the estate and to plan how to best use it to eliminate his debts. What follows are Max’s attempts at relationships with two French women, an investigation into whether Max is the legal heir to the estate, and intrigue surrounding the vineyard’s wine. (more…)

THE WORLD TO COME by Dana Horn

Reviewed by Katie Farnam

Eternity is a concept that haunts, mystifies and instills hope in many. In Dara Horn’s The World to Come, eternity is presented in a scattered spectrum of obscure, yet thoughtful scenarios. The novel focuses on Benjamin and Sara Ziskind, a set of thirty-something Jewish twins, and a Chagall painting which has been part of their family for several generations. (more…)

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by James Baldwin

Reviewed by Nisha Bhat

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK by James Baldwin is the story of a young black couple separated when the man, Fonny, is falsely accused of rape and imprisoned. The story is largely narrated by Fonny’s lover and soon-to-be-mother Tish, and it unfolds through a set of disconnected scenes in the present and the past. (more…)