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Recent Reviews
Heidi Julavits
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune Julavits does not go the route of the confessional that is popular these days; instead, she slyly reveals anecdotes and reminiscences from which her personality can be gleaned ... These entries are polished. There is none of the sloppy, ripped-from-the-handwritten-pages oversentimentalism that can sometimes define a diary ... There is glorious slippage, just enough to see its author in the various stages of her life, adhering to the truth as she sees it.
Julie Otsuka
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune The style and subject of her latest novel are similar to those of her first book, When the Emperor Was Divine, written in 2002 (and talked about for many years afterward). The sentences are lean, and the material reflects a shameful time in our nation's past. The women who came to the United States were filled with hopes and dreams that were dashed as they met their husbands-to-be — men who looked nothing like the photographs that they had sent to Japan, and who were not doctors and shopkeepers, but field hands and laundrymen. They were men who themselves had been disappointed and beaten down by a country that wanted their labor but not their presence … Otsuka masterfully creates a chorus of unforgettable voices that echo throughout the chambers of this slim but commanding novel, speaking of a time that no American should ever forget.
Rachel Cusk
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation starkly illustrates what comes after motherhood, at least for Cusk, in an abstract style that will speak closely to some while leaving others wishing for a more sequential retrospection of Cusk's marriage and subsequent divorce … Cusk does write intimately about her family's life with, and without, her husband – just not in the voyeuristic manner that our society has grown used to...Whether there is a defining incident that caused Cusk's separation from her husband we don't know, and nor should we necessarily care. Cusk's focus is on the pain and grief that accompanies the deterioration of a marriage and a life built together, specifically when it involves children ... As philosophical as this memoir may be, Cusk also deftly balances exposing her depleted mental state with her physical deterioration.
Tom Perrotta
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune In the town of Mapleton, the young and old struggle through their daily lives as they come to grips with losing family members and childhood friends, while cults such as the Healing Hug Movement, the Barefoot People and the Guilty Remnant (also known as the Watchers) prey upon the vulnerable and the grieving survivors … The Garvey family did not lose any family members to the Sudden Departure, but lost them instead to the aftermath of emotion and rudderless activity that envelops the entire community … Perrotta has a gifted ear for dialogue and a distinct appreciation for the particularities of suburban life. However, it was difficult to understand what motivated his characters to make the choices they did. There was an emptiness to their actions that could not be attributed to the Sudden Departure or the grieving process.
Donna Tartt
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune This novel is a veritable journey for reader and protagonist alike, and one made more pleasurable by Tartt's exquisite eye for the smallest detail … Reading The Goldfinch is like watching a drawn-out but inviting game of hot potato; painting, painting, who's got the painting? There are a few surprises, but for the most part the novel's path is clear. Not that it matters, since this isn't a mystery but more a meditation on the impermanence of life in all its guises.
Hannah Tinti
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune ...an impeccably crafted novel that will thrill new readers and those who have followed Tinti’s work over the years ... While some authors lead characters down a path to unfortunate caricatures, Tinti’s light touch keeps them memorable without overplaying their roles ... There are so many concurrent story lines in “The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley” that to reveal too many details here would risk stealing the reader’s pure enjoyment of such an adventurous and transformative tale. I will warn you to set aside a weekend for this captivating novel, because once you start it you won’t want to put it down until you reach the last page.
Ariel Levy
Pan The Minneapolis Star Tribune Levy is an incredibly talented writer who has built a solid body of work, but The Rules Do Not Apply does not have the same energy that her magazine writing is known for. There are glimpses of raw emotion — when she explores her ambivalence and guilt over her affair or the aftermath of the birth and death of her son — but for the most part the reader is left with the fact that a promising lede doesn’t always deliver.
Maria Semple
Positive The Minneapolis Star Tribune Today Will Be Different is perhaps more a series of interwoven scenes featuring a wild cast of caricatures than it is a tightly plotted narrative, but so was Where'd You Go, Bernadette? There’s much to laugh at, and be offended by, in Semple’s latest, which is why keeping things the same isn’t always a bad idea.
Eowyn Ivey
Positive Minneapolis Star Tribune Ivey’s characters, without exception, are skillfully wrought and pull the narrative forward with little effort. She does not stoop to blanket depictions of tribal life or Victorian women, and instead has created a novel with all of the fine details that make historical fiction such an adventure to read. Fans of The Snow Child will not be disappointed.
Emma Cline
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune The buzz about Emma Cline’s debut novel has been building for months, and deservedly so. The Girls is the summer book that checks off all requirements for the discerning reader: a compelling plot, intriguing characters and spot-on dialogue that evokes the disquiet of one’s teenage years... Cline perfectly captures the excitement of teen rebellion and burgeoning sexuality with the fear of pushing past emotional and socially defined boundaries, and how those transgressions travel into adulthood with us.
Hope Jahren
Rave Minneapolis Star Tribune It is this literary upbringing fueled by science that heralds Jahren’s memoir as the beginning of a career along the lines of Annie Dillard or Diane Ackerman. She constructs her own life story — her struggling years as an undergraduate, the persistent sexist attitude of the scientific community, the constant lack of funds, her growing awareness of her bipolar disorder — with the attention to detail and respect for organic growth that has earned her increased recognition and funding in the later years of her career.
Paul Kalanithi
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune As anyone who has worn a paper robe can attest, the roles of doctor and patient are clearly defined. What Kalanithi does in When Breath Becomes Air is interweave these two roles into one narrative.
Diana Athill
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune “Alive, Alive Oh! is not just a mediation on the experience of aging and its attending challenges; there are reminiscences, too, so beautifully written and exquisitely detailed that if one wanted to know what it was like to live in the English countryside in the 1920s or ’30s, or what it was like in post-World War II London for a young woman, they would do well to read this memoir in addition to any history book.