RaveChicago Review of BooksConsidering its endorsements and detractors alike, I could easily understand why Everett—a writer never afraid to challenge current literary orthodoxies and pretensions—would find a worthy subject in Twain’s portrayal of the enslaved Jim. What I did not expect was the extent to which this book can be read and enjoyed and written about without the slightest nod to its predecessor ... It is a novel where the reader can sink in so deeply, they might forget it’s a reimagining.
Benjamin Labatut
PositiveThe Chicago Review of Books\"If this polyvocal structure sounds reminiscent of another great Chilean author, it’s for good reason. Labatut writes about scientists the way Roberto Bolaño writes about poets. They are near mythical figures, captured at the corner of the novel’s eye. They become historical in the most fraught sense of the term: subject to rumor and speculation and, eventually, the novel’s form inflates their personas into something so large they can only be understood as narrative, never known in any objective capacity. Perhaps this is the reason why part three of The MANIAC falls flat when compared to the first two parts of the triptych ... Thankfully, the uncertainty surrounding The MANIAC’s final subject doesn’t obscure Labatut’s own brilliance. His prose is crisp, and he is able to render momentum where many writers might fail. Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding artificial intelligence persists in no shortage of hand-wringing, some fictionalized, some very real.\
Tina May Hall
RaveThe Chicago Review of BooksTina May Hall is not shy about presenting her novel as a murder mystery from its first sentence ... simultaneously plot driven and softened by its atmospheric prose ... I don’t think I will be alone in saying it is not the novel I expected Tina May Hall to write. I almost certainly will not be alone in saying I am grateful she wrote it all the same ... the writing reads as nearly gleeful ... is lush and clever with its prose, but Tina May Hall writes with the confidence of a prosaist who knows her novel is damn fun. There are stylistic embellishments which could put our most prominent poets to shame and there are times when the novel seems unceasing in its most base narrative pleasures ... In the midst of all this pleasure though, one could almost lose sight of how serious this novel is. Set in an arctic landscape on the verge of environmental catastrophe, Hall is ultimately writing a book about extinction ... Hall wades in and out of genre trappings with nerve and with playfulness.
André Aciman
PositiveThe Chicago Review of Books[Aciman] skillfully delays gratification in this novel ... Aciman’s agenda is more than simply to provide closure. Find Me is a digressive and complicated novel that delights in the most intimate details of romance. Inevitably, some readers will view certain characters and entire sections as disposable. I’ll admit that upon immediate reflection, I questioned the point of the central romance in Part Two. Why spend nearly one hundred pages on a relationship, only to abandon it entirely? In a book where the characters are so delicately drawn, it struck me as a waste. Here I was, like most readers, begging for the closure Aciman is so intent on resisting. But Aciman, in a defiant move, treats love stories exactly as they are: passionate and intimate and full-hearted — even if they are not permanent — even if they do not fit into the service of a larger narrative ... It will become evident to readers that Elio and Oliver have matured since Call Me By Your Name. Aciman’s writing has undergone the same maturation. Find Me, digressive as it may be, is a structural marvel. This novel is a slow-burn, and its steady pace crescendos toward a moving fifty or so pages at the end. With that said, it takes a while for the novel to pick up steam. Part One includes some unbelievably cloying moments ... By the second part of the novel, we are spared the flirtatious verbal sparring and assertions of love that propel forward Miranda and Samuel’s relationship. The prose grows denser, and these missteps lessen. Aciman decorates the remainder of the novel with remarkable flourishes of prose ... it is notable that gay sex in Find Me is more reminiscent of what we see in the film version of Call Me By Your Name than it is the novel. One can only hope that Aciman is not pivoting away from his past efforts in an attempt to appeal to his newfound, broader audience ... is not without its flaws, but through its willingness to delay and elude closure altogether, it proves itself indispensable to longtime readers and newcomers alike — something too many sequels fail to do.
Amanda Goldblatt
PositiveChicago Review of BooksThrough Denny’s process of evasion and invention of feeling, Goldblatt skillfully constructs a larger parable about empathy as the author blurs the boundary between care for the other and care for the self ... It’s fitting that the narrative voice demonstrates duality: detachment and sensitivity, warmth and self-indulgence. Goldblatt’s writing is both tender and linguistically textured; every sentence is its own acoustic experience. The effect leaves the reader rapt. Much can be said about the strength of Goldblatt’s prose ... Though the quality of the prose is consistent throughout, the story does sag in the middle. It’s a shortcoming that is neither surprising nor uncommon for a story of this nature ... Hard Mouth is as darkly funny as its characters, modulating between entertaining and disturbing tonal registers ... Contradictory through and through, Hard Mouth is a novel that may appear dispassionate, but it is an exceptionally complex text on the nature of empathy.
