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Chad Dundas
Mixed Washington Independent Review of Books Novels of literary suspense like this one share certain characteristics, including action sequences, conflict, unanswered questions, an unidentified killer, and, usually, the police. All are present here, and the denouement to this tale is satisfying on all counts. Along the way, however, Dundas occasionally lets us down ... We wonder what it’s going to take to get Matthew—and us—committed to finding the killer ... Still, there are many fine moments. While the story moves at a leisurely pace from scene to scene, often with little action or conflict, an event will trigger Matthew’s memory, and bang! We’re off and running, at least for a while ... Despite the casual pace of the early scenes, The Blaze is easy reading and, when things pick up at the end, with just a little suspension of disbelief, it delivers the goods.
Shani Boianjiu
Positive The Washington Independent Review of Books As a novel the book is awkwardly structured. The stories are told through the first-person voices of each of the three girls — Yael, Avishag, and Lea — and also, confusingly, by a third-person narrator who sometimes refers to \'we\' or \'us.\' It is hard to follow the chain of events this way and the stories and anecdotes never quite come together in a unified whole ... But the stories and anecdotes abound, and some of them are first rate ... Reality in these stories can be slippery. In a perplexing rape episode, the author suggests a shifting level of reality, letting us wonder if parts of the episode are imagined ... The People of Forever Are Not Afraid provides a fine flavor of what Israeli military life is like for young women — no mean feat — and many of the episodes are engaging and revealing.
Leo Benedictus
Mixed The Washington Independent Review of Books The second part of the book is dominated by an extended scene that is so gruesomely awful it will sicken you. The author’s style, presumably employed to help illustrate N’s obsessive mental condition, includes sliding from first-person to third-person narration and back again, usually without warning or transition. This keeps the reader both alert and annoyed ... N’s self-examination, sometimes linking his thoughts with thinkers such as Einstein, Murkowski, or Montaigne, drags on, but when events—even tame ones—are unfolding, his thoughts can bounce around interestingly ... The stories told in normal narrative fashion are well-written and engaging ... The exploration of a sick man’s mind can be a worthy subject ... but the ghastly torture sequence sucks all the oxygen out of the book’s second half, undermining any literary depth that N’s mental trekking might otherwise have had ... There is no satire in Read Me. It might have benefited from some.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Positive The Washington Independent Review of Books Eugenides seems most comfortable when he can write his stories with irony and a detached, sophisticated humor. He is thoroughly cosmopolitan, and he can be very funny. This style is on full and effective display in ‘Capricious Gardens,’ but several of the other stories are deliberately dark, their characters devoid of hope or humor … Fresh Complaint is chockfull of good things: interesting characters, clever twists, lively scenes.
Amor Towles
Mixed The Washington Independent Review of Books The book is aptly named. The preface, which takes place in the Museum of Modern Art in 1966, is especially lovely; the civility here seems appropriate, with subtle undertones. Later, back in 1938, we wander into penthouses and parties in the company of seemingly endless numbers of wealthy, educated people with waspy nicknames – Dickey, Bitsy, Tinker, Wyss – as they pursue what appear to be relatively empty but nonetheless very pleasant lives. The book is saved from what could be clichéd performances by these smooth young people through Katey’s witty assessments of their long and short suits, both emotional and sartorial … Katey usually keeps her distance; the characters are more observed than deeply felt. But the tale is engrossing, and Katey herself is interesting and often compelling.
Ward Just
Mixed The Washington Independent Review of Books These trips are eloquently executed, the moods evocative, and they form one of the novel’s strengths, its ability to put us in a place, make us feel at home, and be pleased to be there. But the tripping is also a problem. As we drift, and sometimes leap, back and forth in time, the reader must scramble to find clues about the era or year the action is occurring ... There are five main stories in the book, each identified by a chapter heading. They’re all good, but the sequences do not lead from one to the other. Some readers will find fault with that: no real plot ... I like more plot than this book delivers. Yet I found myself often captivated by the beautiful language, the sense of place so well described, and feeling at home.