ALREADY DEAD, by Denis Johnson

No, Already Dead is not a vampire or zombie book,despite the title. It is a strange, dark, scary and sometimes funny noir piece about the disintegration of an already mostly disintegrated life, that of a man surnamed Fairchild, and the bizarre cast of characters surrounding him (e.g., his acid-burnt-out-case brother William, violent drifter Van Ness, witch/healer(?) Yvonne, disfunctional pig-hunter hit men, giant-sized local phenomenon nicknamed Frankenstein, etc. Fairchild, son of a local property magnate, finds himself owing almost $100K to a local gangster and schemes to bump off  his wife to use her insurance money. He hires Van Ness, after saving him from a suicide attempt, to do the job, but the plan erodes badly hereafter. Much of the narrative traces a local cop, Navarro, who is transplanted from East LA to the seemingly peaceful yet spooky and intense northern California coast. Navarro finds himself involved in the violence that follows the initial plot, and tries to sort it all out. Johnson is a gifted writer who  has been a finalist for the Pulitzer. He writes with hallucinatory vividness and humor, but the overall tone of the book is dark, murky, spooky and disturbing.


For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/31/reviews/970831.31gate01.html

DISSIDENT GARDENS, by Jonathan Lethem

Being a big Lethem fan, I was excited to find a new novel by him, and I wasn't disappointed. Dissident Gardens, set solidly in New York as are many of his best (Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City) is a sort of "epic" tale of three generations of "dissidents" - in particular, Rose Zimmer Angrush, American communist in the old party style from the 30s-50s, her daughter Miriam, swept into the "new Left" movement of the 60s-70s, and finally Sergius, third generation dissident with his own path to discover. There are other connected characters, the most memorable being Douglas Lookins, Rose's black policeman lover, Douglas' son (and Rose's protege) Cicero, slimy "uncle Lenny", and Tommy Gogan, Miriam's Irish folksinger husband, Sergius's father. The story of Rose's life, told in a non-chronological order, with considerable side paths, anchors the plot. And it's as much about a small slice of Queens as it is about the characters. The book is strongly written, vivid, even moving, written in Lethem's beautiful, often ironic and humorous style.

For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/books/dissident-gardens-jonathan-lethems-new-novel.html?_r=0

NW by Zadie Smith

I'd been meaning to read NW since it came out last year but was waiting for a digital copy from the library. Finally got fed up waiting and read the h/c. I had a mixed response to it. The book had moments of brilliance, and was not at all  hard to get through. The fact that the plot(s) basically went nowhere didn't alarm me much, and I enjoyed the "local color" of the London suburbs. The story, centering on the lives and interactions of Leah and Natalie, two rather different women from the neighborhood does have a hard edge to it that was not very evident in White Teeth or On Beauty, even though race was an issue in both books. The structure of the book seems a bit chaotic - for example,one section of the last  half of the book that focuses on Natalie proceeds via some strange numbered fragments that sometimes seem random. I liked the very indeterminate ending and the gritty reality of the characters and their surroundings. Was the book worth waiting for? I'd say, 'yes'.

For a review of the book by The Guardian, click here: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/31/nw-zadie-smith-review

A PERSON OF INTEREST, by Susan Choi

There's been a bombing in a small Midwestern university - a charismatic and well-loved mathematician has been killed. His next-door office neighbor, 70-something Korean immigrant math colleague Professor Lee is shocked by the act, which sets off an often unpleasant conscience-searching exercise. Lee becomes "a person of interest" in the subsequent FBI investigation -- hence, the title of the book. The plot revolves around Lee's seemingly inappropriate behavior in the wake of the tragedy, which casts suspicion on him with the police and his colleagues. As his everyday life starts to unravel, we get a replay of his messy two marriages/divorces, and his odd relationships with past colleagues. The story plays out like an old film noir plot, centered on Lee's confusion and emotional disintegration. A Person of Interest is an engaging and well-written piece, both in the way it handles the plot (search for the bomber) and the character of Lee.

For a review of the book from NY Times, click here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/books/review/Prose-t.html?_r=0

THEY LIVE, by Jonathan Lethem

I typically read and review fiction exclusively, but I saw this piece of film criticism by Jonathan Lethem, one of my fav writers, so I thought I'd give it a try. I found it extremely entertaining, well written and cleverly put together. In the book, Lethem walks the reader through the often tacky and certifiably weird B movie "They Live" directed by John Carpenter. The movie is presented not exactly frame-by-frame, but sequentially in time. The film's political subtext is explored, as the artifice of the x-ray like specs that reveal a paranoid view of social control by unnamed aliens/ghouls in a Ronald Reaganized reactionary consumer culture. Lethem's treatment of the movie is intelligent, entertaining and very readable. His witty and insightful commentary is a lively treat, even if you are not a B-movie fan.

For a review of the book by popmatters, click here:  http://www.popmatters.com/review/134687-they-live-deep-focus-by-jonathan-lethem/

SERVANTS OF THE MAP, by Andrea Barrett

Servants of the Map is an interesting collection of stories that share the theme of 19th century scientific inquiry. I find the stories uneven - my favorite is the first story, about a cartographer mapping the Himalayas. Several of the stories are interconnected as they share characters. The stories are well-written and the best ones sustain interest and open up a window onto 19th century mindset. In this sense, the stories ring true. The writing is vivid at its best and a bit flat at worst. The book was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2003.


For a review of the book from NY Times, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/11/books/books-of-the-times-scientists-plumb-life-s-mysteries-with-minds-and-hearts.html?smid=pl-share

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION, by Michael Chabon

The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a creative and engaging novel by gifted writer Michael Chabon, based on a strange scenario in which the nation of Israel was crushed a few months after its establishment, in the first Arab-Israeli War, and the Jewish refugees were relocated to an area around Sika, Alaska as their new 'promised land."  The story is a detective tale in which the protagonist, Meyer Landsman, a rather down-and-out hard-boiled "yiddish cop" tries to find out who killed a mysterious young man who turns out to have interesting connections to local heavies. I can't go into the plot too deeply without spoiling the story. The book is warmly and humorously written, although the plot gets a bit convoluted in the last half of the book. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and some remarkable metaphors and imagery. Sub-plots revolving around Landsman's relationship with his ex-wife and his half-native American, half-Jewish partner give some depth. It takes some time to figure out the features of the parallel universe portrayed in the book, but this uncertainty does keep the reader interested.

For a review of the book from The Guardian, click here:http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/10/fiction.features3