Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, William Boyd’s The Romantic, and Patti Hartigan’s August Wilson: A Life all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week.
1. The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
11 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed
Read an excerpt from The Bee Sting here
“The Bee Sting…ought to cement Murray’s already high standing. Another changeup, it’s a triumph of realist fiction, a big, sprawling social novel in the vein of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. The agility with which Murray structures the narrative around the family at its heart is virtuosic and sure-footed, evidence of a writer at the height of his power deftly shifting perspectives, style and syntax to maximize emotional impact. Hilarious and sardonic, heartbreaking and beautiful—there’s just no other way to put it: The Bee Sting is a masterpiece.”
–Jonathan Russell Clark (The Los Angeles Times)
2. The Romantic by William Boyd
(Knopf)
4 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed • 1 Pan
“This is a rambunctious, swashbuckling tale, told with panache by a master storyteller. Boyd is sufficiently confident in his material to portray historical incidents and characters with casual relish … Longstanding admirers of Boyd have come to expect, and delight in, his generous, maximalist approach to both storyline and character. So perhaps it is inevitable that his prose, usually so elegant, occasionally tips over into overripe melodrama”
–Alexander Larman (The Guardian)
3. The English Experience by Julie Schumacher
(Doubleday)
1 Rave • 5 Positive
Read Julie Schumacher’s remembrance of Melissa Bank here
“Though the passages of student writing tend to wear thin, Schumacher draws the series to a close with a satisfying arc and a surprising twist after Fitger forms an unexpected bond with his charges. Fans will delight in this winning send-off.”
**
1. The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life by Clare Carlisle
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
6 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Intriguing, often brilliant … Ultimately, Carlisle’s thoughtful, comprehensive account of this particular liaison exquisitely probes the complex, thorny, and fascinating question: How much does our choice of partner determine who we ultimately become?”
–Jenny McPhee (AirMail)
2. August Wilson: A Life by Patti Hartigan
(Simon & Schuster)
6 Rave • 1 Mixed
“Masterful … With painstaking research, stylistic verve, and an eye both admiring and exacting, Ms. Hartigan has pieced together the man behind the 20th Century Cycle, bringing Wilson to furious, complicated life … Ms. Hartigan documents with a great sense of the dramatic … Narrated brilliantly.”
–Isaac Butler (The Wall Street Journal)
3. Schoenberg: Why He Matters by Harvey Sachs
(Liveright)
3 Rave • 2 Positive
“A model of concision—a concentrated meditation instead of a panorama. It may be recommended for anybody with an interest in the work of the Viennese-American composer Arnold Schoenberg … Mr. Sachs’s fine study should inspire a fresh understanding of his life and work.”
–Tim Page (The Wall Street Journal)
