About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
Hanan al-Shaykh
Positive The Hudson Review Catherine Cobham has ably translated the book from the Arabic, and only the occasional English-ism might distract an American reader … witty, wonderful characters…reveal a great deal about the country they grew up in, and left … Al-Shaykh works a little miracle with her characters and…allows all sides to speak and everyone to hear each other … [a] warm, amusing novel[.]
Deborah Eisenberg
Rave The Hudson Review Eisenberg’s latest...has become my other favorite collection published in 2018. She’s smart, funny, artful ... full of whimsy and irony ... Eisenberg’s stories...[skate] on the edge of the supernatural without ever crossing the border. People’s mental states might make them see uncanny things, but the overarching narrator has perfect vision.
Dorthe Nors, Trans. by Misha Hoekstra
Rave The Hudson Review Kudos to the translator … I found myself utterly beguiled by shy, sharp, funny [protagonist] Sonja … Finding Dorthe Nors has been good for me as a reader, because I now have her other books to look forward to. If, as we’re told, only 3 percent of the world’s books get translated into English, I’m very glad Nors’s are among them. The gruesome Nordic noir can go forever untranslated as far as I’m concerned, but thoughtful, intelligent novels like this one need to appear in English.
Lauren Groff
Rave The Hudson Review ...masterful ... superb fiction ... Groff knows that Florida is not for the faint of heart, and she subtly shows the menace lurking among the flowers ... Florida is a collection with no weak stories ... Lauren Groff is quite possibly the best fiction writer in America today, and that’s saying a lot because the competition is fierce.
Madeline Miller
Rave The Hudson Review …Circe by Madeline Miller…thrilled me. This young classicist has brought Greek mythology to life … her elaboration of mostly inexplicable deeds will make you think about the Greek gods and the humans they dealt with in a completely new way. Indeed, by the time you finish this novel, you will be amazed by what she has done with the characters of Odysseus and Telemachus. Based on the facts as we have them, Miller’s version of events makes emotional and artistic sense. Circe, like its main character, is magical.
Lionel Shriver
Positive The Philadelphia Inquirer This is the popular refrain whenever kids shoot up a school: Why didn’t the parents do something to stop them? Do the parents of killers neglect their kids, fail to see the warning signs? In this novel, the question gets answered pretty quickly. Despite a disclaimer that 'neither nature nor nurture bears exclusive responsibility for a child’s character,' it’s pretty clear that the title character is demon spawn from birth … The first half of the book is a series of witty ruminations on a number of topics, but the plot drags. The last half, however, really takes off as a novel: Shriver’s already balletic prose begins to dance to the beat of a purposeful narrative.
Kate Atkinson
Rave The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Ms. Atkinson\'s new novel, Life After Life, soars above anything she\'s done before ...Ms. Atkinson\'s time-bending, rule-breaking narrative most resembles David Mitchell\'s Cloud Atlas and Jim Crace\'s Being Dead ...has crafted an experimental novel that appeals to traditional readers ...is novelistic comfort food, something to consume when Downton Abbey isn\'t on ... Rambunctious moments of family life lighten darker themes of war and misogyny, and Ms. Atkinson knows how to render a funny scene... Several key dates and scenes recur and readers will find themselves checking back to compare the different versions ... The novel begins and ends with the concept of amor fati.
T.C. Boyle
Mixed The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ...a funny, sexy novel ... Mr. Boyle inhabits diverse characters better than anyone I know, and he does a great job here having two women — one a chosen terranaut, one a disappointed reject — and a randy male terranaut alternate narratives about the experiment ... I applaud his prose and his humor — any given 50 pages of The Terranauts is lively and entertaining — but the combined weight of 500-plus pages didn’t add up to a more satisfying experience, just a longer one ... The novel’s greater meaning seems to be, simply, 'people never change.' For me, that’s not enough to hang a novel on.
Edna O'Brien
Rave The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Edna O’Brien recognizes that people who watch such atrocities at a distance, including powerful leaders, rarely intervene. Thus, the victims multiply, but the stories they tell have their own healing power. Ms. O’Brien has done more than many governments by giving voice to the dispossessed in this novel of remembrance.
David Mitchell
Positive Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Read this little yellow book and you’ll have a fun introduction to not only The Bone Clocks, but Mr. Mitchell’s other work. You’ll also have a wonderful tale to beguile you on the last Saturday in October as you sit inside, near the entrance to your house, waiting for the goblins and wizards of the land who make their way to your staircase, your suddenly scrutable door.