Tana French’s The Hunter, Colum McCann’s American Mother, Jennifer Croft’s The Extinction of Irena Rey,and Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week.
1. The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
(Bloomsbury)
8 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from The Extinction of Irena Rey here
“The intriguing premise of Jennifer Croft’s debut novel will prompt readers to wonder what kind of book this is. A fiendish whodunit? A riddling thriller about why the lady vanishes? A slice of psychological horror in which the assembled characters get nastily bumped off, one after the other? In fact, The Extinction of Irena Rey is something quite different. It is also, to a large extent, something quite brilliant. Croft subverts expectations with a blackly comic, fiercely inventive drama that explores the cult of celebrity and the art of translation (an art this critically acclaimed, award-winning translator has mastered) while spotlighting disparate individuals working together and falling apart … However, as Croft thickens her plot, she also clutters her narrative, often impeding momentum … But during Croft’s more streamlined sections, there is much to admire and enjoy … a frequently dizzying display, which leaves the reader both disoriented and exhilarated.”
–Malcolm Forbes (The Washington Post)
2. The Hunter by Tana French
(Viking)
4 Rave • 4 Positive
“French’s dialogue is some of the best in the business, and it’s a delight to watch her move between American and Irish vernacular. In general, the novel’s greatest pleasures—genuine twists aside—reside in the specific intersection of outsider and native … French does more than show the banal evil behind a smiling face. She makes it particular as a kicked dog’s limp and dying embers in a steel barrel—and reminds us that we underestimate such places at our peril.”
–Sadie Stein (The New York Times Book Review)
3. Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman
(W. W. Norton and Company)
5 Rave • 2 Positive
“Outstrips its predecessor technically, emotionally, and spiritually but is perhaps not quite as much fun … Waldman immerses us in their world … As her characters move through their routines, Waldman maintains a kind of steady presence, attentive but not intrusive … Washes labor in a stately, almost Steinbeckian light, emphasizing its difficulty but also its dignity. That the prose doesn’t soar is the point … Rotates through the minds of nearly a dozen employees, who sail into focus one by one as they react to the scheme and to the desires and resentments it stirs up. They come thickly alive, by turns ingenious, petty, motivated, yearning, empathic, perversely self-thwarting, and defiantly playful.”
–Katy Waldman (The New Yorker)
**
1. American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley
(Etruscan Press)
6 Rave • 2 Positive
“Part of the grace of the book is to present us with a thoughtful and impassioned woman who sits outside every stereotype … Artfully structured and delivered with propulsive intensity and heart, American Mother takes us deep into what must be every parent’s nightmare … To read the scenes in which mother and killer sit across from one another, delivered in palpitating detail, and to see Foley wonder how she might be able to help the killer’s daughters, is to be reminded that it’s those who are sure they know everything who are most reliably in the wrong. And that some souls are strong enough to step beyond even our most poisonous divisions.”
–Pico Iyer (AirMail)
2. The Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice by Alex Hortis
(Pegasus Crime)
3 Rave • 2 Positive
“Hortis ably sketches the legal and journalistic wranglings that accompanied the Bodine case … Hortis, an attorney whose previous book chronicled organized crime, covers this material with workmanlike efficiency and a keen eye for courtroom theatrics. As quaint as some of the story’s details may seem, its themes feel remarkably contemporary: We still rush to judgment, resort to stereotyping and fall for all kinds of propaganda. If the narrative takes some time to get going, the reader is rewarded by the increasingly bonkers trials and their fallout. And it’s impossible to argue with the book’s thesis: ‘Tabloid justice would, one way or another, alter American law.'”
–Kate Tuttle (The New York Times Book Review)
3. Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch
(Harper)
1 Rave • 4 Positive
“Finding a chronicler with the proper combination of familiarity and detachment can be like going on a series of bad Hinge dates, but in Gooch, Haring has met his match. Radiant, referring to both Haring’s recurrent drawing of a crawling baby and his own fast-burning star, is a faithful retracing of his steps, with over 200 people interviewed or consulted: devoted and probably definitive. (The word ‘magisterial’ is too stuffy to apply to its subject, who favored jeans, sneaks and bared biceps) … [Gooch] is a poet, which shows in phrasing at once shrewd and evocative … With licensing and replication now turbocharged—you can buy Haring wares on the sale rack at Uniqlo—Gooch’s book insists readers slow down and consider the artist’s legacy. And its cover feels like a secret handshake, done in the colors of an old-fashioned New York City taxicab.”
–Alexandra Jacobs (The New York Times)
