MixedAV ClubTom McCarthy’s third novel, C...follows Serge Carrefax’s life with an interest more overwhelming than logical; its breadth of information consistently exceeds its depth ... Removed from the postmodern trick that animates Remainder, McCarthy’s narrative is so flat that more interesting characters—like the wealthy playboy Widsun, who appoints himself Serge’s mentor potentially as a front for an affair with Serge’s mother—slide straight off the page. Serge’s internal phantasmagoria enables McCarthy to represent his perspective as a toddler with a fresh palette, but it becomes an obstacle to relating his life story. It’s stifling in the details he misses, as much as the overwhelming tide of those he doesn’t ... Without a compelling reason to follow its subject’s development, or any clear evidence that he does develop (beyond the unerring passage of time), C resembles a series of snapshots of 20th-century Britain, rich in individual detail, but lacking a connecting thread.
Tina Fey
RaveThe A.V ClubHilarious confessions seem to spring unbidden from Tina Fey in Bossypants, but don’t be fooled: The artistry of her autobiography-turned-polemic raises the bar for every comedian who dares put cursor to Word doc ... Preserving the comic voice she honed for years onstage and on SNL, Fey lets her jokes travel unintercepted to the ends of her sentences, magnifying their impact with the element of surprise. She’s also joyously, unexpectedly blunt about her weaknesses and disappointments, from 30 Rock’s ratings troubles to her indecisiveness over whether to have another child ... Time and power allow her to calmly dissect the obstacles she faced, while gleefully skewering the sexist, misogynistic views she was expected to take for granted on her way up, including the myth that her presence prevented another woman’s progress. Embedding her life with a sharp critique of the world that shaped her is painstaking work, but Fey jabs and punches artfully, tempering herself with self-deprecation instead of self-pity. Even as she declares her effortlessness to be an illusion, Fey makes her potent combination of wit and attack look easy.
Keith Gessen
PanAV ClubIt\'s hard to tell whether the three protagonists of All The Sad Young Literary Men are separate personalities, or just three installments of the same guy. If all these mad mopes weren\'t so interchangeable, Keith Gessen\'s vacant bildungsroman might be able to justify the way its characters continually alienate other people (including their readers), under the guise that they really don\'t know themselves ... They wouldn\'t have to be likeable if they were interesting; instead, while Gessen can turn a neat phrase, his protagonists aren\'t people who tempt readers to linger in their presence. Their pretensions override their humorous foibles, and the pity potentially inspired by their myopia becomes irritation, particularly at the frustratingly open ending, which manages to be simultaneously unrealistic and predictable. If it\'s truly this unbearable to be sad, young, and literary, this next great American whine isn\'t the cure.
Siddhartha Mukherjee
PositiveThe AV/AUX ClubWith epic scope and passionate pen, Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor Of All Maladies: A Biography Of Cancer boldly addresses, then breaks down the monolith of disease and its public face from ancient Egyptian care to gene-resistant trial therapies ... Mukherjee incorporates strands of patient histories, but his extensive knowledge of the disease and exuberance for the scientific developments on the path sometimes blots out the human cost of such experimentation; his sensitive treatment of activism among metastatic breast-cancer patients gives their struggle a platform as well as a historical justification for their protests ... A biography without an ending by the author’s own admission, The Emperor Of All Maladies does provide a tempered hope for advances in understanding that will fuel future discoveries.
Colson Whitehead
PositiveThe AV Club...takes place after the apocalypse, but its plot is formed from puzzle, not pursuit. Even with bloodthirsty zombies lurking around every corner, Whitehead’s chosen mouthpiece for plague-ridden America dwells on the crushing inevitability of his situation ... Over the weekend in which Zone One takes place, he wrestles not with how to keep his humanity, but how to jettison it, musing over how to more fully seal himself off from that old life ... Whitehead fills out his world with the mocking jokes of society’s reassembly in the new age and the terrifying tableaux of real-life disasters...then washes it with a dreamy patina of philosophical quandary.
Stieg Larsson, Translated by Reg Keeland
PositiveThe A.V. ClubThe bestselling Swedish novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo begins as an anti-thriller, devoid of the genre's usual chapter-to-chapter cliffhangers ... Larsson's leads are oddly attractive in their complete disinterest in being liked: Blomkvist is an anti-sleuth, immune to the allure of payment even when his former career hangs in the balance, but also to the protests of Henrik's relatives over the re-opening of the case. Lisbeth, too, prefers her chilly, compartmentalized assignments to a lasting career ...so well-developed, their bizarre paths, studded with moments of absurd humor... Larsson indulges in some grisly scenes, but makes it clear that the worst crimes have already taken place in the twisted memories of those involved.
Jesmyn Ward
MixedThe A.V. ClubIt’s to Ward’s credit that Salvage The Bones unfolds along Esch’s sightlines, not those of an outsider peering into her window. And on top of her more pedestrian worries, like how to sneak extra food when there’s barely enough to go around, Hurricane Katrina casts a meaningfully menacing shadow, operating above the gimmick level … Yet Ward still walks the line between depicting the family’s misery and, in mining it for poetic contrast, reveling in its messiness...Avoiding the sentimentality that might have lit stories like Esch’s in other accounts is a desirable goal, but Salvage The Bones’ accumulation of detail tips the scale on the side of wretchedness and takes with it the humanity of its protagonist.
