RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteJeff VanderMeer [...] releases another gritty eco-adventure into the wild. Hummingbird Salamander reads like an existential James Bond novel crossed with a David Attenborough documentary, which should please his current fans to no end. Newcomers may not be ready for this series of fiction-wrapped truth bombs. That being said, readers of all persuasions who appreciate dramatic tension will enjoy the adrenaline rushes that come and go as Jane’s adventure grows steadily more bizarre. VanderMeer conveys a good deal of this frenzy through narrative technique. Sentences pulse like irregular heartbeats. Long stretches of Jane’s narration shatter into action with shootouts, chases, and dramatic confrontations. The result is that, like Jane, readers can never let down their guard for a moment.It’s tough to integrate science into fiction without falling into didacticism, but Hummingbird Salamander manages beautifully.
Kiley Reid
RavePittsburgh Post-GazetteMs. Reid...blends black horror, satire, and current events to create a scathing critique of white, middle-class America. Her social commentaries land like a series of swift kicks to the ribs; tokenizing, fetishizing, and every microaggression you can imagine are blown up to proportions too large to miss, unless you’re in denial. Watching Emira navigate dangers of which she’s largely unaware creates dramatic tension ... Invoking Jordan Peele is more than fair ... It’s a portrait of dangerous white womanhood that could hang in the same gallery with The Picture of Dorian Gray ... Not that Black America is left entirely off the hook ... a nuanced portrait of emotional danger both inside and out ... Highly recommended, especially for fans of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere and Kaitlyn Greenidge’s We Love You, Charlie Freeman.
Malcolm Gladwell
MixedPittsburgh Post-GazetteFalling headfirst into the balance fallacy by invoking sides is never a good sign, and some readers may feel he should have known better ... Having dismissed everything else as irrelevant, Mr. Gladwell dives headfirst into his thesis and supporting evidence, presenting a mountain of quirky anecdotes and interesting research about our blunders with strangers, and why we make them. It’s what Mr. Gladwell’s fans have come to love and expect from his work, and it’s definitely engaging. But even accomplished writers occasionally bite off more than they can chew: The sheer amount of information Mr. Gladwell includes soon proves impossible to discuss with the focus and attention to detail it deserves ... While it’s fascinating to peek at these incidents through Mr. Gladwell’s psychological lens, readers may wish he had explored fewer examples more thoroughly ... The book’s biggest flaw is...its failure to consider power’s role in conflict.
Chuck Klosterman
RavePittsburgh Post-GazetteA beach read...for late-stage capitalism ... Calling them teaching stories or contemporary parables also works ... Sartre would definitely approve. Whether their settings are fantastic or realistic, Mr. Klosterman’s stories gleefully skewer contemporary human behavior with the sharpest metaphorical sticks he can find. Middle class professional people and situations are his main targets, but Mr. Klosterman throws everyone and everything under the bus as needed to prove a point or land a joke ... On the whole, Raised in Captivity reads like the collected sermons of a manic street preacher in clown makeup. Readers who already enjoy Mr. Klosterman’s writing will happily devour this sizzling plate of sacred cow, and those who can laugh in the face of despair will find both validation and tonic in its pages ... Highly recommended for sophisticated readers who aren’t afraid of cutting themselves on the edge of contemporary literature.
Adam Ehrlich Sachs
RavePittsburgh Post-GazetteThe Organs of Sense is deeply rooted in the Western intellectual tradition, and prior knowledge of Leibniz’s optimistic worldview is helpful for appreciating the book’s satirical streak; it’s also helpful if you’ve read Candide. Sachs’ writing, however, aligns most closely to Thomas Bernhard’s, particularly in its listener-monologue structure. But don’t panic: Sachs—a semifinalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor—also has martini-dry wit and a fantastic sense of comic timing. Incremental repetition of key phrases heightens the overall absurdity ... Has Sachs written \'the best of all possible books,\' as Leibniz himself might call it? In a literary landscape crying out for wit and intricacy, it’s hard to imagine how it could have been better.
Kathleen Alcott
RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette... literary remedy. Like the moon reflecting sunlight, Ms. Alcott’s tale of the late 20th-century and its discontents mirrors and contextualizes our current times ... Alcott’s characters capture, in miniature, our nation’s struggle to reconcile generational values and historical events ... The narrative easily switches between character perspectives with detached compassion; though it’s clear where Alcott’s sympathies lie, she refuses to indulge in either/or thinking. Instead she explores actions, moods and motives with a nonpartisan eye, inviting readers into the depths of the characters’ psychological makeup ... Readers who value elegant style will savor Alcott’s musical sentences and dreamlike pacing, while those who demand historical accuracy will appreciate the endnotes: well worth a peek; they demonstrate a serious commitment to research and a cogent argument for Alcott’s writing choices ... The results, however, speak for themselves: readers will repeatedly lose themselves in the past only to be shocked back to the present by issues that still trouble America today. The connections are subtle, but the impact is striking, especially if you lived through any of the eras in question ... One thoughtful novel can’t unpack all of America’s generational damage, but Alcott’s story is a good step in the right direction...Thanks to Alcott, readers who enjoy literary fiction have a golden opportunity to not just look, but also to really see. Highly recommended, with liberty and justice for all.
T. J. Martinson
RavePittsburgh Post-Gazette\"The pacing is slow and suspenseful, making readers feel as if danger lurks around every corner, and the characters talk in short sentences that would look right at home in comic book dialogue balloons. The descriptive passages, in contrast, are so detailed that they’re easily visualized ... in [Martinson\'s] skillful hands, the Kingfisher’s story becomes an elegant deconstruction of superhero mythology and a deep examination of 21st-century heroism ... Debut novels can be hit or miss; The Reign of the Kingfisher hits a grand slam for its intended audience. It might even convince skeptics that superhero stories can make good literature. Take it at face value, then plunge into its depths: both experiences are guaranteed to please.\
Karen Thompson Walker
MixedPittsburgh Post-Gazette\"Ms. Walker’s simple, direct language allows readers to focus on the questions she raises ... The ethical dilemma at the heart of the plot is far less subtle ... When readers wake up from Ms. Walker’s speculations, they’re once more left alone in their search for meaning in a broken world. Some will find this disappointing, but those who prefer the journey to the destination will consider it time well spent. A thought-provoking read for our troubled times.\
Caitlin Moran
RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteBottled and sold, a woman’s desires could illuminate a large city ... If that idea frightens you, back away slowly from Caitlin Moran’s new novel, How to Be Famous. Everyone else should buckle up for the magical mystery tour that is life with Dolly Wilde, the up-and-coming music journalist with Champagne dreams and a Mad Dog budget ... Stylewise, Ms. Moran’s writing is a breath of fresh air in the often stuffy, overly serious world of women’s fiction. Her sentences crackle with sass but also reveal the vulnerability that lies beneath many a modern woman’s confident exterior. Rude, crude and incredibly lewd, the world-wise Dolly persona protects Johanna from serious emotional harm and buys her time to come to terms with the adult situations in which she finds her still-teenage self ... in the end, it’s Ms. Moran’s ferocious tenderness and stubborn optimism that make How to Be Famous the perfect summer read for riot grrls, rainy day women, and the John Kites who love them.
Rachel Kushner
RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteMs. Kushner skillfully blends these various plot threads into a seamless nonlinear narrative. The pacing is deliberately slow but not plodding; readers will savor every detail of Ms. Kushner’s descriptive passages, which bring ferocious beauty to even the ugliest surroundings (Steinbeck would approve) ... The details of Romy’s crime are revealed late in the narrative, and by the time readers have the full picture they may very well question whether she should be locked up. On the other hand, they may consider Romy an untrustworthy narrator who deserves her fate. The truth is somewhere in between, a condition all literary fiction fans instinctively understand. Rarely, however, does an author make the point the way Ms. Kushner does, with both elegance and grit. Either way, The Mars Room is this summer’s mandatory highbrow beach read.
